Match review frequency to volatility
Schedule schema reviews at cadences matched to environmental volatility: weekly/biweekly for high-change contexts, monthly/quarterly for stable contexts, plus triggered reviews when surprises occur.
When This Fires
- Setting up a schema review practice
- When some schemas feel over-reviewed while others are stale
- After a surprise reveals that a schema drifted since its last review
- During any planning of recurring epistemic maintenance
Common Failure Mode
Applying a single cadence to all schemas: "I review everything monthly." This under-reviews volatile schemas (a month is too long for startup-stage assumptions) and over-reviews stable ones (monthly reviews of fundamental principles produce no insights). Match cadence to volatility.
The Protocol
(1) Classify your schemas by environmental volatility: which domains change weekly? Monthly? Rarely? (2) Set review cadences: high-volatility → weekly/biweekly, low-volatility → monthly/quarterly. (3) Add triggered reviews: any surprise (Surprise = automatic schema review — do not wait…) triggers immediate schema review regardless of scheduled cadence. (4) Adjust cadences based on experience: if scheduled reviews consistently produce no updates, lengthen the cadence. If surprises keep appearing between scheduled reviews, shorten it.