Principles
2,201 principles · page 32 of 46
Tag beliefs and schemas in your knowledge system…
Tag beliefs and schemas in your knowledge system with explicit confidence levels and evidence bases, then review and update these calibration tags over time.
Before significant decisions, state your confidence level…
Before significant decisions, state your confidence level explicitly along with the three strongest reasons you could be wrong to institutionalize calibrated thinking.
Separate prediction accuracy from decision quality…
Separate prediction accuracy from decision quality by building contingency plans for multiple outcomes rather than assuming your most likely prediction will occur.
Record your mental and physical state alongside predictions…
Record your mental and physical state alongside predictions to detect correlations between physiological/emotional states and systematic prediction errors.
When communicating information across time or people…
When communicating information across time or people, explicitly record the context that shaped your interpretation to prevent systematic misunderstanding by future interpreters who will lack that context.
When switching between cognitive contexts, insert…
When switching between cognitive contexts, insert a deliberate transition protocol that closes the old context and loads the new one, rather than assuming instantaneous context transfer.
Record decision context—forces, constraints, alternatives…
Record decision context—forces, constraints, alternatives, emotional state—in writing at the moment of choice, before hindsight bias can reconstruct a fiction that feels like memory.
When experiencing cultural friction or confusion, treat…
When experiencing cultural friction or confusion, treat it as data about the boundary of your own operating system rather than as evidence of others' incompetence.
Apply temporal context filters to distinguish between…
Apply temporal context filters to distinguish between domain-specific facts (short half-life, requires aggressive updating) and structural principles (long half-life, validated by temporal survival).
Review consequential assessments in at least two distinct…
Review consequential assessments in at least two distinct emotional contexts before finalizing to reveal what each emotional state makes visible or invisible.
For high-stakes vocabulary in agreements or decisions…
For high-stakes vocabulary in agreements or decisions, request operational definitions from each stakeholder independently before proceeding to verify alignment.
Move from abstract agreement to concrete specification…
Move from abstract agreement to concrete specification by requesting examples and counter-examples when stakeholders use high-stakes abstract nouns.
When technical vocabulary crosses disciplinary boundaries…
When technical vocabulary crosses disciplinary boundaries, explicitly verify that terms carry the same operational meaning in each discipline before using them in cross-functional work.
Before sending text-based messages, re-read…
Before sending text-based messages, re-read as if you are a stranger with zero shared context to detect ambiguities that shared history would otherwise mask.
When receiving ambiguous messages, respond with clarifying…
When receiving ambiguous messages, respond with clarifying questions about missing context rather than constructing interpretations from your own context.
When frustrated by individual behavior in organizations…
When frustrated by individual behavior in organizations, identify at least three structural factors that reward or permit the behavior before attributing it to character.
Design organizational processes by asking 'What…
Design organizational processes by asking 'What will a rational person optimize for under these incentives?' rather than 'What do I hope people will do?'
When evaluating performance, ask 'What did the system make…
When evaluating performance, ask 'What did the system make easy or hard?' before asking 'What did this person do well or poorly?'
Break complex cognitive work into convergent blocks…
Break complex cognitive work into convergent blocks (analytical, detail-oriented, evaluative) and divergent blocks (creative, associative, generative), then configure distinct physical environments optimized for each mode rather than attempting all cognitive work in a single workspace.
Before group discussions on important topics, require…
Before group discussions on important topics, require participants to write down their positions privately, then compare post-discussion positions to identify when conclusions changed due to new evidence versus social absorption.
Introduce a single designated dissenter in group decisions…
Introduce a single designated dissenter in group decisions to reduce conformity pressure by approximately 80%, particularly when consensus is forming rapidly around a position.
Deliberately expose yourself to epistemic communities…
Deliberately expose yourself to epistemic communities outside your primary professional circle on a regular schedule to prevent your social environment from becoming the sole determinant of what you can believe.
Document the reasoning and context behind decisions…
Document the reasoning and context behind decisions alongside the decisions themselves in persistent systems that survive personnel turnover, treating rationale as equally important as the decision record.
Before proposing the removal of any inherited system…
Before proposing the removal of any inherited system, process, or structure, first document why it was originally created and what problem it solved—if you cannot reconstruct this context, you lack sufficient information to safely remove it.
Match your study method to your anticipated retrieval…
Match your study method to your anticipated retrieval method—if you will need to explain verbally, study by explaining; if you will need to apply to novel problems, study by application; if you will need to write, study by writing.
Before communicating any recommendation or conclusion…
Before communicating any recommendation or conclusion, explicitly establish common ground by stating what the audience already knows (Situation), what changed or created a need (Complication), and what question this raises (Question) before presenting your Answer.
When documentation describes system decisions, prioritize…
When documentation describes system decisions, prioritize explaining why a choice was made over describing what was chosen, because 'why' context remains useful after 'what' implementation details become obsolete.
Design physical and digital environments so that desired…
Design physical and digital environments so that desired behaviors require fewer steps than undesired behaviors, making the path of least resistance align with your goals.
Set defaults for recurring choices to align…
Set defaults for recurring choices to align with your long-term goals rather than accepting system-provided defaults that optimize for others' objectives.
When a newly designed context fails to change behavior…
When a newly designed context fails to change behavior within one week, modify the cue visibility, friction points, or reward structure rather than concluding the behavior is impossible.
Before applying expertise developed in one domain…
Before applying expertise developed in one domain to a different domain, audit which contextual features differ and adjust your approach to account for changed scope, cultural norms, organizational structure, temporal dynamics, or stakeholder incentives.
Cognitive offloading must become an automatic daily habit…
Cognitive offloading must become an automatic daily habit rather than a technique deployed only when problems feel difficult, because sporadic practice produces scattered artifacts while daily practice produces compounding cognitive infrastructure.
Review externalized entries in sequence weekly to surface…
Review externalized entries in sequence weekly to surface patterns, trajectories, and contradictions that are invisible within any single entry, converting scattered daily captures into compounding insight.
Document decisions by capturing not just the conclusion…
Document decisions by capturing not just the conclusion but the full context: alternatives considered, information available and missing, optimization criteria, and conditions that would trigger reconsideration.
Write reasoning chains as construction rather…
Write reasoning chains as construction rather than transcription—build the argument link by link and discover its structure through writing rather than copying pre-formed conclusions.
Articulate the warrant—the principle connecting evidence…
Articulate the warrant—the principle connecting evidence to claim—at each step in a reasoning chain, because unstated warrants are the most common point of logical failure and the hardest to detect internally.
Write precise emotion labels rather than vague narratives…
Write precise emotion labels rather than vague narratives when externalizing emotional states, because high-granularity labeling activates prefrontal regulation circuits and enables targeted responses while low-granularity labels ('stressed', 'bad') lose the action signal.
Use externalized emotion records to create cognitive…
Use externalized emotion records to create cognitive defusion—reading your written emotional state as an external observer rather than being fused with the emotion as your identity—enabling deliberate choice rather than automatic reaction.
Frame goals at the identity level ('become a person who X')…
Frame goals at the identity level ('become a person who X') rather than only outcome level ('achieve Y') to create psychological anchor that persists when progress stalls and provides decision filter independent of motivation state.
Prioritize testing assumptions by mapping them on importance
Prioritize testing assumptions by mapping them on importance (how much failure matters) versus vulnerability (likelihood of being wrong), then test high-importance, high-vulnerability assumptions first.
Use prospective hindsight (imagining future failure as past…
Use prospective hindsight (imagining future failure as past event) to surface hidden assumptions more effectively than forward-looking risk analysis.
Use commitment devices (precommitments that constrain future
Use commitment devices (precommitments that constrain future options) to bind your future self when present and future incentives diverge.
Block time on your calendar for top priorities during…
Block time on your calendar for top priorities during your highest-capacity hours to convert priorities from abstract intentions into protected structural commitments.
Design dashboards for noticing patterns rather than hitting…
Design dashboards for noticing patterns rather than hitting targets to prevent Goodhart's Law (metrics ceasing to be good measures when they become targets).
Label every relationship in concept maps with specific verbs
Label every relationship in concept maps with specific verbs describing mechanisms rather than vague connectors to force precise articulation of understanding.
Show externalized models to others for inspection to bypass…
Show externalized models to others for inspection to bypass the bias blind spot and surface assumptions invisible to the model's creator.
Externalize cognitive blockers immediately in the form 'I…
Externalize cognitive blockers immediately in the form 'I cannot [action] because [obstacle]' to convert them from unstructured anxiety into solvable problems.
Break compound blockers into discrete…
Break compound blockers into discrete, independently-addressable components because the brain treats decomposed obstacles as more actionable than monolithic ones.