Why does observation vs interpretation fail?

You write the observation and the interpretation in the same sentence, believing you're being objective. 'He was rude in the meeting' feels like an observation, but it's already an interpretation. The observation is: 'He interrupted me twice and did not make eye contact.' Until you can reliably tell the difference, every downstream conclusion is built on unstable ground.

The fix: Pick one situation from the last 24 hours that triggered a strong reaction. Write two separate entries: (1) the raw observation — only what a camera would record, and (2) the interpretation — what you concluded it meant. Look at the gap between them. That gap is where most of your errors live.

The underlying principle is straightforward: What you saw and what you concluded from it are distinct and must not be fused.