Question
What is recursive self-improvement?
Quick Answer
You can build models of how your models work — this is the beginning of recursive self-improvement.
Recursive self-improvement is a concept in personal epistemology: You can build models of how your models work — this is the beginning of recursive self-improvement.
Example: You have a schema for evaluating job offers (weigh compensation, culture, growth). But you've never examined how you built that schema — whether it came from a single bad experience, parental advice, or systematic research. A meta-schema would let you ask: where did this model come from? What assumptions does it encode? When should I rebuild it from scratch? Without that meta-level view, you're running decision software you've never audited.
This concept is part of Phase 17 (Meta-Schemas) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for meta-schemas.
Learn more in these lessons
- A meta-schema is a schema about schemas
You can build models of how your models work — this is the beginning of recursive self-improvement.
Go beyond the answer
This topic is part of The Coach’s Cognitive Toolkit — a guided sequence of 20 lessons.
After completing this path you will have a coherent meta-framework that organizes your coaching models, tools that work at the identity level (not just goal-setting) to close the knowing-doing gap, a measurement system for tracking invisible client progress, and a personal sustainability practice that prevents the burnout that 67% of coaches experience within three years.
Start the path →