What is reactive vs responsive?

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 Observation Without Judgment in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for observation without judgment.