Domain facts need aggressive updating; structural…
Distinguish domain-specific facts (treatment protocols, software frameworks, market conditions) requiring aggressive temporal updating from structural principles (logic, mathematics, core psychological mechanisms) where age indicates Lindy-tested robustness, applying opposite update strategies to each type.
Why This Is a Rule
Knowledge has two fundamentally different relationships with time, and applying the wrong temporal strategy produces opposite errors.
Domain-specific facts (treatment protocols, software frameworks, market conditions, regulations) depreciate rapidly. A 2020 best practice for React might be antipattern by 2026. Medical treatment protocols update annually. Market conditions shift quarterly. For these, recency is a quality signal — newer information is more likely to be accurate. The update strategy: seek the latest version, be suspicious of aged sources, schedule depreciation reviews (Quarterly).
Structural principles (logic, mathematics, core psychological mechanisms, thermodynamics) gain trust with age. The Lindy Effect (Taleb, 2012): the longer a structural idea has survived, the longer it's likely to continue surviving. A principle that's held for 2,000 years (Aristotle's logic) is more trustworthy than one proposed last year. The update strategy: trust old sources more, be suspicious of "revolutionary" replacements, and only update when replication evidence is overwhelming.
Applying the wrong strategy: trusting a 5-year-old framework recommendation (domain fact treated as durable) or dismissing a 50-year-old psychological principle as "outdated" (structural principle treated as perishable).
When This Fires
- Evaluating whether stored information is still valid (Quarterly depreciation reviews)
- Deciding whether to update your knowledge about a topic
- When someone dismisses established knowledge as "old" or defends outdated practices as "proven"
- Classifying new information for appropriate shelf-life treatment
Common Failure Mode
Applying uniform temporal treatment: either treating all knowledge as rapidly depreciating (constantly chasing the newest research, ignoring Lindy-tested foundations) or treating all knowledge as timeless (relying on decade-old framework comparisons, trusting market analyses from three years ago). The classification matters — different knowledge types need different strategies.
The Protocol
When evaluating information currency: (1) Classify: is this a domain-specific fact or a structural principle? (2) Domain facts → apply aggressive temporal updating. Check: when was this published? Have conditions changed since? Is there a newer version? (3) Structural principles → apply Lindy reasoning. Check: how long has this principle been established? Has it survived multiple paradigm shifts? Does new evidence genuinely challenge the mechanism, or just the application? (4) Apply opposite update strategies: suspicious of old domain facts, trusting of old structural principles.