recallX
Memories that matter
RecallX records what a senior engineer actually knows — the pattern recognition built over thirty years of ground, drawings, and contractors — before it retires with them. Not by questionnaire: sessions are triggered by the expert's own artefacts, because recognition is easier than recall, and the good material only surfaces when the situation does.
What comes out is not a recording. It is a vault of bounded, cited statements — each one approved by the expert, linked to the moment they said it, and carrying the limits that make it safe to reuse. Their successors ask; the answers arrive with a voice attached.
The method
Eleven sessions over roughly eleven weeks, built on the Cognitive Interview — tested across 42 studies and ~2,500 interviewees. The easy material first; failure stories are never asked for before session five, and stay private until the expert says otherwise.
- S0Consent & scopenot recorded · 45 min
- S1Career map60 min
- S2Project inventory60 min
- S3Critical incident — a save90 min
- S4Critical incident — a contrast90 min
- S5Critical incident — a loss90 min · private
- S6Artefact deep dive90 min
- S7Literature challenge60 min
- S8Timed scenarios90 min
- S9Heuristics & their limits60 min
- S10Teach-back & review90 min
What you show determines what you get.
Questions are the weakest cue there is. The expert's own drawings, plots, and photographs are the strongest.
Inside the platform
“Looking at this plot, what do you see first?”
When an inclinometer shows a sharp offset at a consistent depth across consecutive surveys, and piezometric levels near that depth are rising, treat it as a reactivating shear surface until proven otherwise.
Limits & caveats
Not applicable to rockfill shells · assumes survey error ruled out
Specific 5 · Evidenced 4 · Testable 5 · Teachable 4 · Bounded 5
“An inclinometer on our downstream slope shows an offset at 44 ft — what should I check?”
Verified · expert approved
Check the movement rate against the last survey, rule out casing error, and gauge pore pressure at the seam itself — not just at the crest.
▶ F. Alvarez · Session 6 · 00:12:40Who is learning from you
Your knowledge answered 34 questions this month.
A graduate engineer in Sacramento used your noncircular-search rule in a slope stability review on Tuesday.
212 knowledge units carrying your name
For the expert
This is a legacy, not a debrief — and the expert holds the pen. The rules never change, whatever they choose:
- Every statement published in their name is approved by them first.
- Anything can be withdrawn, at any time, without a reason — even after approval.
- Stories about what went wrong stay private until they decide otherwise.