Weeks 1–4
Four closer meetings
Learn the protocol, establish confidentiality norms, practice private-first judgment and work on real cases.
Reality Skill Founding Lab · Protocol v1.2
Not another mastermind.
A small human-first system for better consequential decisions - designed to use meetings only where a live room adds more value than a simpler process.
The first 10–12 weeks
What the Reality Skill base cycle is designed to change.
The basic idea
Most decisions should not need the room.
A normal mastermind puts the meeting at the center. Reality Skill does the opposite.
Rule → experiment → structured solo → independent async panel → room only for the residual.
If an inexpensive method resolves the question, we stop. The room is reserved for decisions where independent responses reveal valuable disagreement, competing models, missing information or a framing problem.
Phase 1 · Foundation
Approximately 10–12 weeks · 6 in-person meetings.
The Foundation is not a twelve-topic course. Its job is to build the habits, trust and reliability that make lower-burden async work possible later.
Then
Two more spaced meetings
Async panels start carrying real decisions while the group tests whether trust and reliability persist between meetings.
Human baseline
Human baseline first
The founding cohort first establishes what the human protocol can do. AI can then be tested as a separate red-team layer after members record independent positions, with its contribution measured against that baseline.
Learning layer
Scored Journal from day one
Important decisions receive an initial estimate, action, review date and later outcome.
Foundation Gate
Monthly cadence is earned by evidence, not by finishing the calendar.
At the end of Foundation, the group moves to cruise only when three conditions are actually working.
Reliability
80%+ async response without individual reminders
The group can carry async responsibility without the facilitator chasing every answer.
Candor
Decision-relevant cases are real enough to reason from
Members do not remove information whose absence would materially distort the group’s judgment.
Independence
Private-first behavior actually holds
Members preserve their own view and contribute unique information, competing models or genuine dissent when it exists.
If one condition is not ready, the group adds two more spaced meetings and reviews again. Dissent is not a quota; independence is the requirement.
Phase 2 · Cruise
One in-person Chartroom every 4 weeks.
This is the minimum personal-contact rhythm of Protocol v1.2, not a temporary inefficiency to optimize away.
Async workhorse
3–4 Full Panels / month across the whole group
The capacity limit protects attention. Not every important question deserves seven other people.
Typical member load
2–4 responses / month
Usually about 10–15 minutes each.
Monthly Chartroom
One unresolved case
The live room focuses on the most valuable residual uncertainty rather than taking cases by rotation.
Protected social time
45–60 minutes after structured work
Planned, expected, but not policed. Trust needs contact that is not another framework.
Async Independent Panel
A serious case gets independent signals before conversation.
The owner prepares a concise Case Pack.
- Decision and deadline
- Objective and constraints
- Facts and observations
- Interpretations and assumptions
- Unknowns
- Realistic options
- Private initial estimate
- What would change the owner’s mind
Other members answer independently.
- Your estimate or recommendation
- Most important missing information
- Relevant first-hand experience
- Best competing explanation
- What would change your mind
- Where your information comes from
- Does this case need the room?
Nobody sees another member’s answer before submitting their own.
Three outcomes
The panel does not exist to create a meeting.
Close
The question is sufficiently resolved
The owner updates, decides and sets a review date. No synchronous meeting.
Investigate
A high-value unknown appears
Stop discussing. Get the information, run the test or verify the assumption first.
Escalate
Residual uncertainty is worth the room
Meaningful spread, competing models, tacit experience or framing problems make the case a Chartroom candidate.
Monthly Chartroom
The room is the court of appeal, not the default.
~15 min
Scoreboard
Open earlier decisions and predictions. What did reality actually do?
~10 min
Reality Harvest
Fresh observations from the parts of reality each member directly sees.
~50 min
One unresolved case
Why did competent independent judgments disagree? What unique information or model explains the spread?
~15 min
Update + retro
Private final estimates, owner decision, review point and one short process review.
Then the protocol stops. 45–60 minutes are protected for food, coffee, a walk or ordinary conversation. No facilitated “relationship exercise.”
Emergency exception
A 45-minute Mini-Room exists - but only behind a pre-written threshold.
- The decision is high-stakes.
- The deadline arrives before the next Monthly Chartroom.
- The Async Panel did not resolve the important uncertainty.
- Three to five relevant members are enough.
If the group needs more than one Emergency Mini-Room in a month for two months in a row, the Router/cadence is reviewed. The exception is not allowed to quietly recreate weekly meetings.
What Experiment #001 is testing
The founding cohort is a feasibility pilot, not proof.
Decision quality and throughput
- How many cases close async?
- Does private-first preserve useful disagreement?
- Does the panel surface genuinely new information?
- Do escalated cases deserve the room?
Human sustainability
- Can monthly contact maintain candor and trust?
- How much time does each resolved decision consume?
- Do members keep using the protocol without prompting?
- Does the Scored Journal improve updating over time?
Who we are selecting
Not primarily the highest-status people. The most useful group is made of reliable, independent sensors.
Reliable
Others can count on you
You respond when a serious case deserves your attention.
Candid
You bring enough of the real situation
Not every detail - but enough that the group is not reasoning from a sanitized fiction.
Independent
You can disagree without performing disagreement
You form your view before seeing the room and update when evidence warrants it.
Distinct experience
You see something the room may not
Different domains, environments, first-hand experience and information sources matter.
Good faith
Other people’s cases stay safe
Confidentiality is a participation condition, not an aspirational value.
Updateable
Being wrong is not a status failure
A changed mind after better evidence is a successful outcome.
Application
Apply for a Reality Skill founding group.
We select for reliability, candor, independent judgment, distinct first-hand experience, good faith and ability to update. Participation format is a practical constraint, not the purpose of the group.
About 7 minutes.Three short steps. Your draft stays in this browser tab until it is submitted.
Step 1 of 3Your decision