Map review frequency to pace layer: weekly for fast-changing, annually for governance, anomaly-only for foundational
Assign review cadences to schemas based on their pace layer—weekly to monthly for fashion/commerce layers in complex domains, quarterly for infrastructure layer, annually for governance layer, and only on anomaly for culture/nature layers with high dependency depth.
Why This Is a Rule
Stewart Brand's pace layering model describes how complex systems have layers that change at different speeds: fashion changes weekly, commerce monthly, infrastructure yearly, governance over decades, culture over centuries, nature over millennia. Schemas about each layer depreciate at the layer's pace — and review cadences should match.
A schema about current market trends (fashion/commerce layer) that's reviewed annually will be obsolete for 11 months of the year. A schema about fundamental human psychology (culture/nature layer) that's reviewed weekly wastes 51 reviews per year on something that changes over decades.
The pace-layer mapping: Fashion/Commerce (trends, tools, market conditions, competitive landscape) → weekly to monthly review. Infrastructure (processes, systems, team structures) → quarterly review. Governance (policies, values, organizational principles) → annual review. Culture/Nature (human psychology, physics, mathematics, deep cultural patterns) → anomaly-triggered only — no scheduled review needed because these layers change so slowly that scheduled reviews produce no updates.
When This Fires
- When setting up a review schedule for your schema portfolio
- When some schemas feel over-reviewed while others are stale
- During planning of epistemic maintenance practices
- Complements Match review frequency to volatility: weekly for fast-changing, quarterly for stable, instant for surprises (volatility-matched review cadences) with the pace-layer framework
Common Failure Mode
Reviewing all schemas at the same cadence: "I review everything monthly." This wastes monthly reviews on stable governance schemas while under-reviewing volatile market schemas. Match cadence to pace layer.
The Protocol
Classify each schema by pace layer: (1) Fashion/Commerce (tools, trends, market conditions) → review weekly to monthly. (2) Infrastructure (processes, workflows, team structures) → review quarterly. (3) Governance (principles, policies, values frameworks) → review annually. (4) Culture/Nature (psychology, logic, mathematics, physics) → review only when an anomaly triggers it (Accumulate anomalies on a running list — trigger schema review at the count threshold, not at each one). Set up calendar reminders for each cadence tier and review each schema only at its matched frequency.