What is simulation-based training?

Simulation-based training is a concept in personal epistemology: Run through scenarios mentally or in low-stakes situations before relying on a new agent.

Example: You build a morning routine agent — a sequence of cues, decisions, and actions designed to get you from alarm to deep work in 45 minutes. Instead of deploying it tomorrow when you have a 9 AM client call, you test it on Saturday when nothing depends on it. The agent fails at step three: your coffee ritual takes 20 minutes, not five. You adjust. Monday, the revised agent runs clean. If you had tested in production, you would have been late to the call and blamed the system.

This concept is part of Phase 21 (Agent Fundamentals) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for agent fundamentals.