What if your daily mistakes weren’t evidence against you… but evidence about you? A court tries to assign blame. A lab tries to understand mechanisms. When you treat your mind like a lab, getting stuck becomes informative. The interesting data isn’t only the correct answer. It’s the strategy you tried first. The assumption you didn’t notice. The moment you switched approaches. Those are fingerprints of cognition. They show how you represent problems, how you handle uncertainty, and where your defaults pull you. This is why “write something down” matters. Not for performance. For traceability. Your brain will revise history the moment it feels pressure. But written drafts preserve the original move… so you can learn from it. You don’t need more self-judgment. You need cleaner observations. Try this: the next time you struggle, record the first strategy you attempted. Then ask, “What did I assume was true?”
