What is pause before reacting?

Pause before reacting is a concept in personal epistemology: There is a gap between experiencing something and reacting — you can learn to widen it.

Example: A teammate posts a code review comment that reads: 'This approach is fundamentally wrong.' Your chest tightens. Your fingers start typing a defensive reply. But you've trained the pause — so you notice the tightening, set the laptop down, and come back in ten minutes. When you reread the comment, you see they explained a valid architectural concern. Your response addresses the concern instead of the tone. Same stimulus. Completely different outcome.

This concept is part of Phase 5 (Observation Without Judgment) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for observation without judgment.