Editorial Standards

How we source, label, review, and correct Second Order pages — and how we use AI.

Second Order by TKN is a research letter on the AI trade — semiconductors, power, neoclouds, and the layers around them. These standards say how we write it, how we source it, and what we will not do.

Who writes this

Sean writes Second Order by TKN. He covers AI infrastructure for international readers: chips and packaging, memory, power and cooling, neoclouds, hyperscalers, and the landlords and suppliers who get paid when capacity binds.

The method is simple. When a story is loud, look one link further down the chain. Who sells the memory. Who powers the hall. Who owns the building. Then write what would prove that read wrong.

Sean is not a licensed adviser. Second Order does not publish tip sheets or buy lists. Every page is education about how the stack works and where money can stick — not a recommendation to trade.

How we source

Primary sources come first:

Company filings and investor presentations
Government and regulator releases
Grid operators and official capacity or queue data
Named company press releases with a date

Named trade press is second, and only when it adds a dated fact we cannot get from a primary source. We do not use unsourced "industry estimates" as if they were guidance.

Every figure on a page should be checkable. Numbers carry a date. External links use rel="nofollow noopener" where we control the markup. The source list at the foot of each Explained or Markets page is the map — not decoration.

What we label

Words matter when a number is soft.

Reported — a press or filing figure we are repeating, not treating as company guidance
Guided — something the company or a regulator has stated as outlook or official guidance
Our calculation — arithmetic we did ourselves; the steps are shown on the page
Our read — judgment about what the facts imply; labelled as a read, not a fact

If capacity or timing comes from press coverage, we say reported. We do not dress a rumour as a plan.

Review cadence

Explained and Markets pages are living pages. Each one should show:

Last reviewed — the date a person last checked the claims against sources
Next review — a real trigger (a quarterly result, a policy decision, a named report)

When we change a material number or conclusion, we update the reviewed date. Schema dateModified should move with the page when we touch it in Ghost.

Corrections

We want errors found. Email [email protected] with the page URL and what looks wrong.

When a correction is needed we will:

Fix the page
Note the change near the trust block or in a short corrections line on that page
Keep the correction visible — we do not silently rewrite history on living reference pages

Small typos may be fixed without a note. Material number, date, or attribution errors get a note.

What we don't do

No tip sheets
No buy or sell calls
No price targets
No "you should own X" language

Second Order is education about the AI infrastructure stack: who gets paid, where money sticks, and which step is stuck. Readers make their own decisions. Do your own research.

How we use AI

We use AI tools for drafting help — outlines, first passes, and cleanup. A person reviews every page before it goes live. Sources and numbers are checked by a person. AI does not invent filings, and we do not publish a page we have not read.

If a calculation is ours, a person did the arithmetic and the page shows the steps.

These standards apply across www.sotkn.com. The short trust block on each Explained page ("How we check this") points here on purpose: method lives once, claims stay on the page with dated sources.

Questions or a correction: [email protected].