TP-09 CEM Technical Papers Technical Paper

Stop, Pause, Reset

What happens when things break

First-line tactical interrupt for AI-native recovery. Three steps. Near-zero cost. Deployed first, deployed often. The mechanism behind the 41% → 0% rework recovery.

Solo Operators · CTOs · Founders

41% → 0%

Rework recovery (CS4)

3 steps

Stop · Pause · Reset

Near zero

Deployment cost

The Problem

High-output execution creates a specific vulnerability: momentum that overrides awareness. The operator is producing output at speed and may not notice when quality degrades, direction shifts, or confusion accumulates. In AI-native execution, where each decision compounds into subsequent decisions, continuing misaligned execution generates compounding divergence. Stop, Pause, Reset breaks this cycle: Stop the current approach, Pause to create space between stimulus and response, Reset to a known-good state.

What This Establishes

Recovery is a mechanism, not luck.

The CS4 build hit 41% rework twice and recovered to 0% both times. That's not resilience — it's a system operating as designed.

Near-zero cost enables liberal deployment.

Because Foundation catches everything stashed during a Reset, the cost of stopping is trivially low. This makes early intervention the default, not the exception.

The interrupt is prerequisite, not diagnostic.

Stop, Pause, Reset doesn't solve the problem. It creates the conditions for diagnosis — space between stimulus and response where assessment becomes possible.

Validated by these builds

CS-04 The Recovery Build

Key Data

Theoretical basis Kahneman's dual-process (2011)

Extended by Baumeister's self-regulation (1996)

Reappraisal framework Gross (1998, 2002)

Deployment frequency Liberal and early

Recovery cost Near zero (Foundation catches all)

CS4 worst rework phase 41.7%

CS4 final rework phase 0.0%

Escalation chain position First (lightest)