Protocol
Read Papers as Testable Arguments
Choose a paper whose prerequisites you have passed. Reconstruct its argument through three reading passes and trace at least two ancestors before proposing an experiment.
25–45 active hours60–90 min sessionsAdvanced
Mastery contract
Core protocol · Standard 1.0 · Choose a paper whose prerequisites you have passed. Reconstruct its argument through three reading passes and trace at least two ancestors before proposing an experiment.
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Reasoning — not yet passed
The equation reconstruction is dimensionally correct and the 3 assumptions are linked to exact sections or declared as reader inferences.
Reliable implementation — not yet passed
The executable check tests a real claim and contains an expected value or counterexample.
Reproducible experiment — not yet passed
The comparison identifies differences in data, metrics, budgets and uncertainty rather than ranking papers by reported headline numbers.
Defense and handoff — not yet passed
Produce a 2-page critical review with contribution, strongest/weakest evidence, limitations, open questions and a falsifiable follow-up experiment.
All four criteria must pass. Activity completion does not satisfy them.
An independent reviewer reruns your work and varies something you did not rehearse: a fresh input, a different working directory, or a declared edge case.
Pilot decisions are provisional, not external credentials. For an appeal or sensitive artifact, contact your designated pilot operator with the submission ID. Export your assessment history.
What you will do
6 total
Reconstruct one central equation from a familiar paper and enumerate 3 assumptions that its abstract leaves implicit.
Implement a minimal executable check of one numerical claim or equation using a synthetic fixture; keep it separate from claims of full reproduction.
Compare the selected paper with its strongest baseline paper in a 2-column evidence table; identify a controlled test that could reverse the claimed ranking.
Debug an invalid comparison caused by different data, compute or tuning budgets; rewrite the claim so its actual evidence supports it.
Write a 500–900 word technical report linking the reasoning, code, measurements, and limitations; include the project decision below.
Assess all 4 mastery criteria against saved artifacts, request an independent review, and repeat each failed criterion on a fresh example.
Essentials
A reading session alone never satisfies a mastery criterion.
Store source references, assumptions, and artifact paths beside every result.
Keep an untouched check case that differs from the worked example.
Record all attempts, including failures and results that contradict your prediction.
Use the stated comparison conditions; document every deviation before drawing a conclusion.
Protocol guardrails
Do
- +State the expected result before running the comparison.
- +Keep one minimal reproducible failing case when debugging.
- +Record environment versions and the exact command used.
- +Compare explanations with saved intermediate values.
- +Ask a reviewer to challenge the weakest assumption.
Don't
- ×Do not copy a worked solution and present it as an independent implementation.
- ×Do not tune against held-out evaluation outcomes.
- ×Do not report only the best seed or discard inconvenient runs.
- ×Do not equate elapsed hours or a completed run with a passed assessment.
- ×Do not conceal reduced-scale experiments behind claims about the original full-scale result.
Protocol authorship
Written by NuthinButta as instructional design. The teaching sources are the official references linked in each milestone; the exercises, workload and pass thresholds are ours, not their authors'.