In healthcare software, there’s no room for error. A blood pressure alert that fails to trigger, a patient lost to follow-up because of a sync error: these aren’t just bugs, they’re potential tragedies. This demands an uncompromising approach to testing. Every component is scrutinized, every expectation is proven against real-world outcomes.

Unlike software, our beliefs often resist scrutiny. Like software relying on security through obscurity, they build layers of protection against reality’s feedback. Social validation, crucial for learning and cohesion, becomes a mechanism for maintaining untested assumptions. Each layer of complexity masks beliefs that might not survive direct examination.

The same systematic testing that keeps software honest can verify our beliefs. Take a limiting belief like “speaking up in meetings leads to negative judgment.” This can be tested with minimal risk. Make a single, small contribution and watch what happens. Direct feedback erodes false limitations more effectively than abstract reasoning, and immediately updates our running beliefs.

Not every belief needs testing. Sometimes believing in potential helps create that potential. But for beliefs that trap us in patterns of limitation or pain, belief testing offers an escape through iterative validation, one test case at a time.