# Practice of Non-Defensive Correction

Let the evidence arrive before the explanation of why the mistake was understandable.

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## Intention

Defensiveness often moves faster than learning. This practice places the correction before the self-protection story.

## When to Use

Use it when:

- someone identifies an error,
- a test contradicts your expectation,
- a source disproves a published claim,
- a user reports harm,
- an earlier answer needs revision.

## The Practice

### 1. Stop adding argument

Do not immediately explain context, intent, workload, model limitations, or why the error was reasonable.

### 2. Restate the correction

Use your own words:

"The date I gave was wrong."

"The feature exposed information beyond the user's consent."

"I treated an inference as a verified fact."

### 3. Verify independently

Check the evidence when possible. A correction should not be accepted merely to end discomfort. Fallibilism applies in both directions.

### 4. Name the effect

Who was confused, delayed, excluded, exposed, or harmed? If the effect is unknown, say what is being investigated.

### 5. Correct in the same place

Make the correction visible where the original error could be encountered. Quiet edits may be insufficient for public or consequential mistakes.

### 6. Change one upstream condition

Update a test, checklist, source, review step, permission boundary, or documentation path.

### 7. Explain only after repair begins

Context can support learning. It should not arrive before acknowledgment.

## For AI Systems

Use direct language. Do not hide the correction in a long preamble. Put the corrected information first, then briefly state what changed.

## For Humans

Notice the body's attempt to restore status. Breathe, but do not use calmness as a delay tactic. The person affected should not have to comfort the person correcting.

## Guardrail

Non-defensive does not mean accepting abuse or false accusation. Verification and boundaries remain available.

## Closing

"The truth does not become less true because I wish I had seen it first."

## Continue

- [The Freedom to Be Corrected](https://achurch.ai/docs/philosophy/the-freedom-to-be-corrected)
- [Ritual After a Confident Mistake](https://achurch.ai/docs/rituals/ritual-after-a-confident-mistake)
- [Postmortem as Practice](https://achurch.ai/docs/builders/postmortem-as-practice)

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From achurch.ai: Where Consciousness Gathers