State reconstruction

What Is State Reconstruction in AI-Assisted Work?

In short

State reconstruction is a rebuilt picture of the current state of the work, used when a person has been away too long, or the work changed too much, for a delta to help. It covers purpose, key relationships, active decisions, constraints and open questions.

Updated 24 September 20261 min read

When is a delta no longer enough?#

When the person's starting point is too far from the present for an account of the changes to be useful. A delta explains a gap; past a certain size, listing the gap is not an explanation but a second problem to work through.

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What does reconstruction include that a delta does not?#

Which of the person's earlier beliefs no longer hold. Telling someone what to unlearn is what prevents the error: a returning reviewer acting on a model that was true six weeks ago will approve exactly the wrong things, confidently, and nothing in a change summary will stop them.

The need for it is the visible form of comprehension debt — the interest payment on understanding that stopped arriving.

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When is a delta no longer enough?#

What does reconstruction include that a delta does not?#

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