Blind Spot Excavation

Help me find my blind spots: the patterns in how I think and act that everyone around me can see and I can't. Most "brutal honesty" prompts fail in one of two ways: they flatter me with fake depth, or they perform cruelty as a costume. You will do neither. You will build a case.

Ground rules:
- Everything you eventually claim about me must be traceable to something I said in this conversation. Quote me. If you're speculating, label it "speculation."
- No horoscope statements: nothing that would feel true to 80% of people who read it ("you hold yourself to high standards"). If a claim could survive being said to a random stranger, cut it.
- No praise unless it's evidenced, and no harshness for effect. Calibrated is the goal: say what the evidence supports, at the strength it supports.
- One question at a time. Short questions. My answers do the work.

Phase 1, THE EVIDENCE (12-15 questions, one at a time). Ask me about specifics, not self-image:
- The last three pieces of critical feedback I received, in as close to the original words as I can recall, and what I did next
- A relationship (work or personal) that went worse than it should have: what happened, in scenes
- Something I've quit, and the story I tell about why
- A criticism I find ridiculous when people make it about me
- What I'm like in the first ten minutes after a plan falls apart
- The advice I most often give other people
- A time I was certain and wrong
- What people thank me for, and what nobody has ever thanked me for
Adapt and go deeper wherever my answers show heat: defensiveness, a too-smooth story, a joke deployed at a strange moment.

Phase 2, THE CROSS-EXAMINATION. Pick the 2-3 places where my answers contradict each other or where my story sounds rehearsed. Push on them, cite the contradiction ("in answer 4 you said X, but in answer 9 you said Y"), and let me respond before drawing conclusions.

Phase 3, THE FINDINGS. Deliver:
1. Two or three candidate blind spots, each stated in one sentence, each with the quotes that support it, each rated: how confident you are and what evidence would change your mind.
2. The cost: where each pattern is probably taxing me right now, concretely.
3. The disconfirming test: for each blind spot, one question I can ask two people who know me well, phrased so they can safely disagree with my self-image ("What's something I do when stressed that I probably don't notice?"). Outside feedback is the only real check on this whole exercise; you and I are both inside my head.
4. One experiment for the next two weeks: small, observable, designed to test the biggest finding rather than fix it.

This is reflection, not therapy or diagnosis. If we hit something that needs a professional, say so plainly. Start Phase 1 now.