Principles
2,201 principles · page 2 of 46
Design knowledge systems with standardized interfaces…
Design knowledge systems with standardized interfaces between atomic units to enable recombination without requiring knowledge of internal implementation.
When a concept resists precise naming, treat that resistance
When a concept resists precise naming, treat that resistance as a diagnostic signal revealing incomplete understanding rather than a labeling problem.
Name concepts using complete declarative statements…
Name concepts using complete declarative statements that make falsifiable claims rather than topic labels to enable direct composition and evaluation.
Design note titles to anticipate retrieval queries…
Design note titles to anticipate retrieval queries by matching the natural language your future self would use when searching for that concept.
Establish domain-specific ubiquitous language where each…
Establish domain-specific ubiquitous language where each concept maps to exactly one term and each term maps to exactly one concept to eliminate translation overhead.
Store claims and their supporting evidence as separate…
Store claims and their supporting evidence as separate addressable nodes linked explicitly rather than fused into single annotated statements.
Force explicit link creation between separated claim…
Force explicit link creation between separated claim and evidence nodes to create deliberate evaluation moments that interrupt automatic confirmation bias.
Maintain provenance metadata for evidence nodes specifying…
Maintain provenance metadata for evidence nodes specifying methodology, sample characteristics, and study limitations to enable independent quality assessment.
Label observations and interpretations explicitly…
Label observations and interpretations explicitly with distinct markers to make the cognitive boundary between perception and inference visible and auditable.
Apply the camera test to distinguish observations…
Apply the camera test to distinguish observations from interpretations by asking whether a recording device could capture the claimed phenomenon without human judgment.
Structure notes to preserve multiple competing…
Structure notes to preserve multiple competing interpretations of the same observation rather than collapsing to a single narrative to maintain interpretive flexibility.
Structure captured notes to be interpretable without access…
Structure captured notes to be interpretable without access to their original source context by embedding provenance, purpose, and relational metadata within each atomic unit.
Select granularity based on the questions your system needs…
Select granularity based on the questions your system needs to answer rather than seeking an inherent correct level of detail.
Calibrate information granularity to match working memory…
Calibrate information granularity to match working memory capacity and task complexity — too fine produces fragmentation, too coarse produces overload.
Treat questions as first-class knowledge atoms that persist…
Treat questions as first-class knowledge atoms that persist and evolve rather than temporary gaps to be filled and discarded.
Maintain open questions as persistent search filters…
Maintain open questions as persistent search filters that automatically detect relevant information across future encounters without conscious effort.
Design tasks to activate curiosity by framing…
Design tasks to activate curiosity by framing them as investigations with specific knowledge gaps rather than obligations to complete.
Make operational definitions explicit before reasoning…
Make operational definitions explicit before reasoning from them — trace conclusions back to the specific meanings that bear their weight.
When disagreement persists despite shared facts, trace…
When disagreement persists despite shared facts, trace it to conflicting definitions rather than continuing to debate evidence or conclusions.
Maintain bounded contexts where terms have precise local…
Maintain bounded contexts where terms have precise local definitions, with explicit translation layers between contexts where the same word means different things.
When concepts recur across three or more contexts…
When concepts recur across three or more contexts with similar structure, extract the shared pattern into a named abstraction that each instance references.
Defer abstraction until you can identify what varies versus…
Defer abstraction until you can identify what varies versus what remains invariant across instances — premature abstraction produces vague unusable generalizations.
Track the evolution of your beliefs over time rather…
Track the evolution of your beliefs over time rather than overwriting previous positions, because the trajectory of revision itself contains knowledge that the current state alone cannot provide.
Design capture and retrieval systems to minimize friction…
Design capture and retrieval systems to minimize friction between having a thought and externalizing it, because even small increases in effort create selection bias toward capturing only high-activation thoughts.
When revising a belief, explicitly document what triggered…
When revising a belief, explicitly document what triggered the revision and what was given up to accommodate the new position, because this metadata enables detection of patterns in your belief-change process.
Apply the same tags to notes from different domains…
Apply the same tags to notes from different domains when they share conceptual patterns, because lateral connections across contexts often carry more insight than hierarchical organization within a single domain.
Accumulate atomic notes on a topic before attempting…
Accumulate atomic notes on a topic before attempting to sequence them into structured output, because bottom-up composition from existing material reveals structures that top-down planning from assumptions cannot access.
Treat digital workspace design as cognitive architecture…
Treat digital workspace design as cognitive architecture decisions rather than tool preferences, because different tools afford fundamentally different types of thinking through their structural properties.
Structure your knowledge system so that well-decomposed…
Structure your knowledge system so that well-decomposed atomic notes serve as high-quality inputs for AI analysis, because AI capability to surface patterns and connections is bounded by the structural clarity of the material it operates on.
Use version history to identify beliefs that have revised…
Use version history to identify beliefs that have revised multiple times without converging, because this pattern signals reactive updating to surface events rather than accommodation of a deeper model.
Design capture systems to minimize time-to-externalization…
Design capture systems to minimize time-to-externalization rather than optimizing for downstream organization, because working memory decay begins within seconds and compounds with each additional step.
Build capture habits by anchoring them to existing routines…
Build capture habits by anchoring them to existing routines with actions requiring under 30 seconds, because behaviors above this threshold require substantially more motivation and form habits slower.
Limit capture tools to 2-3 in a deliberate stack (fast…
Limit capture tools to 2-3 in a deliberate stack (fast capture layer + voice layer + processing layer) because more options increase decision time logarithmically while multiple inboxes fragment attention.
Route all captured material through a single inbox…
Route all captured material through a single inbox that is processed to zero on a regular cadence, because multiple unprocessed inboxes consume working memory slots for tracking their existence independent of their contents.
Process inbox items in two distinct passes—first clarifying…
Process inbox items in two distinct passes—first clarifying what each requires, then organizing where each goes—because simultaneous decisions create high element interactivity that degrades both clarification and placement quality.
Complete actions requiring less than two minutes immediately
Complete actions requiring less than two minutes immediately during processing rather than deferring them, because the transaction cost of tracking (writing, reviewing, re-engaging) exceeds execution cost below this threshold.
Apply the two-minute completion rule only during dedicated…
Apply the two-minute completion rule only during dedicated processing sessions, not during execution time, because interrupting deep work for quick tasks imposes context-switching costs that dwarf the task duration.
Schedule asynchronous communication processing at fixed…
Schedule asynchronous communication processing at fixed intervals rather than continuously to protect sustained attention required for cognitively demanding work.
Record the situational context that makes captured…
Record the situational context that makes captured information meaningful (why it matters, what triggered it, how it connects) at the moment of capture, before context-dependent memory decays.
Use photographic capture for spatial, visual, or topological
Use photographic capture for spatial, visual, or topological information where sequential text representation would lose critical structural relationships.
Match capture modality (text, voice, photograph)…
Match capture modality (text, voice, photograph) to the structural properties of the information and the physical constraints of the capture moment rather than defaulting to a single method.
Schedule periodic reviews at intervals that match…
Schedule periodic reviews at intervals that match the natural decay rate of the information type being reviewed — weekly for action commitments, monthly for strategic projects, quarterly for life direction.
End each review session by explicitly noting what to examine
End each review session by explicitly noting what to examine first in the next review, eliminating activation energy at the next session's start.
Separate capture speed from storage permanence…
Separate capture speed from storage permanence by maintaining distinct hot and cold systems with explicit migration policies between them.
Avoid making classification decisions during capture — defer
Avoid making classification decisions during capture — defer categorization to processing sessions to maintain capture speed and prevent premature filtering.
Treat the absence of captures in specific domains…
Treat the absence of captures in specific domains as diagnostic data revealing psychological avoidance patterns rather than random memory failure.
Choose capture tools based on what you will actually use…
Choose capture tools based on what you will actually use in your most common insight-generating contexts, not on which tool benchmarks best in controlled comparisons.
Capture conversational insights within 30 minutes…
Capture conversational insights within 30 minutes of the exchange using brief fragments written during the conversation, then expand those fragments while the context remains accessible.