After strong reactions, record facts and interpretations in separate columns
After any event producing strong reactions, spend 90 seconds recording observations in a two-column format (left: camera-recordable facts, right: interpretations) before analysis, because this separation prevents retroactive rewriting of evidence to fit conclusions.
Why This Is a Rule
Memory is reconstructive, not reproductive — and strong emotions accelerate the reconstruction. Within hours of an emotionally charged event, your brain begins revising the evidence to fit the conclusion you formed. What someone "said" shifts to match what you believe they meant. What "happened" reorganizes to support the story that explains your reaction. By the next day, you have a coherent narrative that feels like memory but is largely confabulation.
The 90-second two-column capture prevents this. Immediately after the event, while the raw data is still accessible, you record camera-recordable facts on the left (what a video camera would show) and your interpretations on the right. The physical separation on paper creates a cognitive separation in your mind: these are the facts, and these are my stories about the facts. Without this separation, the stories overwrite the facts within hours.
When This Fires
- After a meeting that produced strong agreement, disagreement, or surprise
- After an incident, outage, or unexpected system behavior
- After receiving news that triggered a strong emotional response
- After any event you know you'll need to discuss, analyze, or act on later
Common Failure Mode
Waiting until you "have time to reflect properly." The 90-second window is the entire point — not because longer reflection isn't valuable, but because raw observations decay rapidly under emotional pressure. After 30 minutes, your interpretation has already begun overwriting the facts. After a day, you can no longer distinguish what you observed from what you concluded. The 90-second capture preserves the raw material that proper reflection needs.
The Protocol
Immediately after a high-reaction event: (1) Draw a line down the middle of a page (or open a two-column note). (2) Left column: write only camera-recordable facts — what was said (as close to verbatim as you can), what you physically observed, timestamps, measurements. (3) Right column: write your interpretations — what you think it means, how you feel about it, what you believe was really going on. (4) This takes 90 seconds. Do it before discussing the event with anyone — conversation contaminates raw observation. You now have an artifact that future analysis can trust.