This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
Primary concept: Hindsight Bias. Rosy Retrospection applies Hindsight Bias to autobiographical memory - the past becomes rosier as time passes.
When it shows up
When looking back on a past period, relationship or experience. In expert witness testimony: when a specialist forgets what they did not know at the time of an event. In code documentation: when a developer cannot reconstruct the reasoning behind their own decisions three months later.
Failure mode
Planning future experiences based on false memories of past ones. Pursuing a nostalgia-driven fantasy of how things were rather than how they actually were.
Countermeasure
Make contemporaneous records of experiences. Compare how you actually felt during a period to how you remember feeling afterward. Trust real-time records over retrospective memory.
Related concepts
Also connected in the mapDeclinism·The Fading Affect Bias·The False Memory Effect·The Nostalgia Effect·Reminiscence Bump·Telescoping Effect·Mood-Congruent Memory Bias
Origin
Also revealed
Entry #129 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon