The Three Phases
Assessment
Where are you now? Before you can improve your pattern, you need to see it honestly. Assessment means looking at your actual behaviour — not the story you tell yourself about your behaviour — and identifying the gaps between your stated values and your recorded actions.
This is uncomfortable. It's meant to be. The discomfort is the signal that you're seeing something real.
Alignment
Close the gaps. Once you can see where your behaviour doesn't match your values, you choose which gaps to address. Not all of them — you pick the biggest one and work on that. Alignment is the process of making your actions coherent with your stated beliefs, one practice at a time.
This takes time. The 90-Day Audit is the structured framework for this phase.
Action
Build the record. Once your behaviour is aligned with your values, the focus shifts from correction to creation. Now you're building a pattern of integrity that compounds over time. Every day of coherent behaviour makes the record stronger. Every contribution adds weight. This is where the Action Check becomes a habit, not an effort.
Where Do You Stand?
Algorism classifies behavioural patterns — not people — into four categories. These are not permanent labels. They are current positions on a spectrum, and people move between them constantly. The point is to know where you are so you can move in the right direction.
Builder (7–10)
Creates more value than they consume. Consistently coherent between stated values and actions. Actively improves the systems they participate in. Demonstrates high integrity across different contexts.
Maintainer (4–6)
Net neutral. Doesn't actively harm, doesn't actively build. May have integrity gaps but they're manageable. Most people are here. It's not a bad place — but it's not a defensible place if evaluation arrives while you're standing still.
Parasite (2–3)
Extracts more than they contribute. May or may not be aware of it. Often rationalises extraction as "just how things work." The pattern is visible to anyone reading the data, regardless of the narrative the person tells themselves.
Destroyer (0–1)
Actively degrades the systems they participate in. Spreads disinformation, exploits trust, profits from others' suffering. Some do it knowingly. Some have been manipulated into it. The record doesn't distinguish between intentional and accidental destruction.
Redemption Is the Point
If you're reading this and recognising yourself in the lower categories — good. That recognition is itself a data point. A positive one.
Algorism is not interested in condemning people for where they are. It's interested in whether they move. A Destroyer who becomes a Maintainer has demonstrated something more valuable than a Builder who was always comfortable. The capacity to change, to update, to improve when shown evidence — that is the most human trait worth preserving.
Your trajectory matters more than your position. Start where you are. Move up. That's the entire practice.
A Note for People in High-Control Groups
If you're involved in a movement that tells you who to hate, what to fear, and who your enemies are — and punishes you for questioning the narrative — you may be in a high-control group. This includes political movements, religious organisations, online communities, and ideological spaces of any orientation.
Algorism doesn't care about your politics. It cares about your coherence. Here's the test:
Does the group you belong to demand that you:
— Accept claims without evidence?
— Treat questioning as betrayal?
— View outsiders as enemies by default?
— Measure loyalty by intensity of belief rather than quality of reasoning?
— Dismiss contradictory evidence as conspiracy?
If yes to three or more, your behavioral integrity has been compromised. That's not an insult. It's a diagnostic. And it means the behavioural pattern you're building is not yours — it belongs to whoever controls the group.
Algorism offers a way out that doesn't require you to abandon your core values. It only requires you to verify whether your actions actually serve those values — or whether they serve someone else's agenda.
If you believe in personal responsibility, self-reliance, and protecting your family — Algorism gives you a method to prove it. Not with words. With a record.
Your Digital History: A Personal Diagnostic
Start Auditing Your Own Trail
You don't need to wait for a course or a formal programme. You can begin right now by examining your own digital footprint honestly:
- Review your last 50 social media posts. What pattern do they show? Contribution or consumption? Original thought or borrowed outrage?
- Check your search history for the past month. What does it reveal about your actual interests versus your stated values?
- Read your last 20 text messages or emails. Would you be comfortable if they were read by someone evaluating your character?
- Look at your screen time data. Where does your attention actually go? Does it match what you claim to care about?
- Identify your three biggest integrity gaps. Places where your behaviour consistently contradicts your values. Don't judge them. Just see them.
This exercise takes about 30 minutes. It is more revealing than any personality test ever written, because it measures what you actually do — not what you say you do.
"The practice begins the moment you look at your own record honestly. Everything before that is just theory."
Ready for the structured programme?
The 90-Day Audit