A technique for turning experience into capability. Originating in Go, it returns to the decision point, replays and analyzes each step, and turns past experience into a tool for the future.
My Interpretation (Wisdom)
If someone asked me for the most important work method I learned in my career, I would say retrospectives.
Not a year-end summary written just to check a box, but genuinely taking yourself back to the decision point and going through it again: Why did I make that choice? What information did I overlook? If I could do it again, what would I do?
A retrospective turns “having experienced something” into “having learned from it.” For many people, the difference between three years of work and one year of work is that they repeated the same experience three times, rather than accumulating three years of capability. People who grow ten times faster are not necessarily smarter; they extract and consolidate learning from every experience until it forms a powerful compounding-capability flywheel.
A retrospective is not merely looking backward while standing still. It is structured thinking that understands and analyzes oneself in order to act on future challenges. Its ultimate purpose is to help set genuinely personal goals based on one’s real life, rather than copying someone else’s formula for success.
Strategy and Methods (Knowledge)
Document Old Work; Retrospect on New Work
- Situation: A team has both mature operations and new experiments and must decide what to standardize and what to keep exploring.
- Method:
- Work that has been proven effective → write an SOP so a teammate can reach 80-point readiness by reading it, reducing communication costs.
- New challenges → conduct a retrospective to find patterns, analyze “how can we do better next time?” and “is this still worth continuing?”
- Example: A team principle from Raymond’s 2019 work at an internet company in Beijing. The internal teaching quality-control handbook for the Notion Boot Camp is an example of “document old work”: a fully remote team can reach a 70–80-point standard by following the handbook without meetings.
- Why not reverse it: Turning a new thing into fixed documentation too early can lock in a workflow before the best solution has been found, missing important insights and better opportunities.
Applying the DIKW Model to Retrospectives
Every effective retrospective completes a transformation from Data to Wisdom:
- Data: The small and large things experienced each day. If recorded only as a diary, they remain scattered noise.
- Information: Use a thinking framework such as problem analysis to organize scattered data into meaningful elements.
- Knowledge: Find cause-and-effect relationships in the information and derive reusable knowledge, such as discovering that a particular communication style works especially well.
- Wisdom: Internalize general knowledge into a personal methodology and know when to persist and when to compromise.
→ See The DIKW Model.
Problem-Analysis Method
During a retrospective, divide problems into controllable, partly controllable, and uncontrollable categories, then choose actions accordingly. This practical version was adapted from the Stoic “dichotomy of control.”
→ Independent concept page: The Problem Analysis Method
The Goal-Setting and Retrospective Loop
The ultimate purpose of retrospectives is to set personalized goals. Integrate problem analysis → OKR → 12-week planning as a three-step process, creating regular feedback and adjustment. The end of each 12-week period then becomes material for problem analysis in the next stage.
→ See OKRs and the 12 Week Year.
Related Content (Information)
Course Scripts
- 21 | Effective retrospectives (Part 1): the secret to tenfold growth — definition, DIKW, document old work and retrospect on new work
- 22 | How to analyze problems and apply Stoic philosophy — problem-analysis practice, Stoicism, and ABC theory
- 23 | Effective retrospectives (Part 2): how should goals be set? — OKRs, 12-week planning, and integrating goals with retrospectives
Articles and Newsletters
- 2026-01-01: How to do a retrospective: a complete guide to common questions about annual retrospectives
- 2024-03-15: Retrospective thinking: what kind of worker are you? The technique of turning experience into capability
- 2020-12-03: Content creation and podcasting: how to conduct a proper retrospective and derive a methodology
- 2024-09-17: What I learned about turning 30 over ten years
- 2024-01-25: 2023 year-end reflection: entering the last year of my twenties
- 2023-09-10: Looking back at notes from my first remote team and student internship program seven years ago
- 2020-11-07: A day of Apple Watch applications at work and in life: quantify yourself to understand yourself better
- 2022-12-29: Running a podcast as an amateur: from single-digit listens to number one, retrospectives, iteration, and work–life integration — Digital Life Atlas #05
- 2021-03-22: Interview with Lin Feiyang: from intern to vice president; how a post-90s professional used old-school methods to innovate and break through
- 2021-01-17: Company of One #3: how to negotiate a good partnership and work efficiently from home
- 2020-11-26: Company of One #2: Can incorporating save taxes? Business is exchange—misconceptions about altruism and self-interest
Social Posts
(To be tagged using the Facebook post curation tool.)
Source Material (Data)
To be imported automatically from Readwise in the future.
Related Concepts
The DIKW Model, The Problem Analysis Method, The Flywheel Effect, Growth Mindset, Goal Setting