SCRIPT CHECK · 60 SECONDS
Five quick questions show how often it appears, how believable it feels, and what it makes you avoid. You’ll get one private next step.
This is not a diagnosis and there is no pass or fail. It measures the current frequency, credibility, and behavioral cost of “I rehearse my defense before the comments even arrive”, including the private rule underneath it: The rule underneath this thought: if I don't have a ready answer prepared before anyone asks, that gap itself will be read as proof I didn't know what I was doing — so the defense has to be finished before the trial opens, not during it.
QUIET
“I rehearse my defense before the comments even arrive” appears, but it rarely gets the final say. Keep this line available for higher-pressure moments: “I can answer a real comment when it exists. I don't owe one to a comment that hasn't been written.”
PRESENT
“I rehearse my defense before the comments even arrive” wins some small decisions before you catch it. Your useful interruption is: “A reviewer reading code is not a jury reading a verdict against me.”
ACTIVE
“I rehearse my defense before the comments even arrive” is shaping action often enough to deserve a deliberate counterexample. Start privately and concretely: Once you push the branch, write your one genuine open question about the diff in a private note and stop — no rehearsed answers to comments that don't exist yet.
DOMINANT
Right now, “I rehearse my defense before the comments even arrive” is steering many of the moments you measured. That is a pattern reading, not a diagnosis or character verdict. Begin with one reversible receipt: Once you push the branch, write your one genuine open question about the diff in a private note and stop — no rehearsed answers to comments that don't exist yet.