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The Self-Correcting System

A system that gets better on its own does two opposite things at once: it grows by remembering its mistakes, and it stays sharp by forgetting almost everything. Most people build one and wonder why it rots.

By Jaco van der Laan · 2026-07-17
The Self-Correcting System
Two opposite motions at once: every correction is kept, and almost everything else is allowed to fall away.

The brief (why this article, in one breath)

Ask what makes a system get better on its own and you get a paradox back. It has to grow — accumulate what it learns so yesterday's mistake isn't repeated tomorrow. And it has to shrink — hand any single task only the slice that task needs, or it drowns in its own accumulation. Grow and prune. Most people build only the first half: they add and add — more notes, more rules, more context — and then wonder why the thing gets slower and vaguer instead of smarter. The missing insight is that a self-correcting system runs on two opposite motions at once, and they're not in conflict; they're the same discipline seen from both ends. It grows where it remembers and shrinks where it acts.

Structure + Data + AI + Rules + Skills → Systems

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