Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Use the excellence ratchet
automate, assess quality, practice deliberately at higher standard, reconsolidate, repeat.
Conduct quarterly reviews of automated behaviors using four…
Conduct quarterly reviews of automated behaviors using four diagnostics: still serving function, context unchanged, quality maintained, would design same way today.
Design environmental defaults so that the easiest available…
Design environmental defaults so that the easiest available action is the one you would consciously choose if fully deliberate, eliminating the need for repeated willpower-based decisions.
When emotional charge exceeds what a situation apparently…
When emotional charge exceeds what a situation apparently warrants, trace the intensity to identify which values, identities, or unresolved concerns the observation has activated.
Design appreciation expressions as triggered habits rather…
Design appreciation expressions as triggered habits rather than spontaneous feelings, because consistent relational deposits matter more for relationship health than intense but irregular expressions.
Implement spaced repetition review at algorithmically…
Implement spaced repetition review at algorithmically determined intervals rather than ad-hoc review to counteract the exponential memory decay curve.
Implement automatic savings and investment transfers before…
Implement automatic savings and investment transfers before conscious spending decisions can be made, because present bias and loss aversion reliably override rational financial judgment when money is visible.
Start financial automations at amounts that feel trivially…
Start financial automations at amounts that feel trivially easy and escalate automatically over time, because modest automations that run undisturbed build more wealth than ambitious automations that get overridden.
Build perceptual detection capacity before attempting…
Build perceptual detection capacity before attempting regulation—you cannot modulate signals you cannot identify.
Examine cognitive appraisals within emotional compounds…
Examine cognitive appraisals within emotional compounds separately from physiological components because appraisals are revisable while basic emotional responses are not.
Extract multiple distinct informational signals…
Extract multiple distinct informational signals from compound emotions rather than treating them as single undifferentiated problems requiring single responses.
Ground emotional labels in somatic data first, then apply…
Ground emotional labels in somatic data first, then apply linguistic labels, to prevent intellectual analysis from bypassing actual felt experience.
Schedule regular interrupts to check internal state rather…
Schedule regular interrupts to check internal state rather than relying on spontaneous awareness, because undetected emotions continue influencing behavior without conscious registration.
Use 'what' questions rather than 'why' questions…
Use 'what' questions rather than 'why' questions when investigating emotions, as causal narratives generated post-hoc are systematically unreliable while descriptive data remains valid.
Extend observation duration beyond initial pattern…
Extend observation duration beyond initial pattern recognition to allow contradictory details to emerge that challenge preliminary models.
Redirect to somatic scanning when conscious emotional…
Redirect to somatic scanning when conscious emotional awareness reports 'nothing,' as physiological markers reveal emotions operating below conscious detection threshold.
Capture moment-by-moment intensity ratings rather…
Capture moment-by-moment intensity ratings rather than retrospective summaries to bypass peak-end memory distortion and reveal actual temporal patterns.
Track intensity over time to detect slow baseline drift…
Track intensity over time to detect slow baseline drift that daily experience cannot reveal, as gradual shifts below conscious detection threshold accumulate into significant changes.
Establish personal baseline ranges for each tracked emotion…
Establish personal baseline ranges for each tracked emotion to distinguish between common-cause variation (normal fluctuation) and special-cause variation (signal requiring investigation).
Treat delayed emotional awareness as full-fidelity data…
Treat delayed emotional awareness as full-fidelity data rather than degraded information, as emotions arriving hours late often carry more signal than those caught immediately due to having cleared suppression barriers.
Create low-cognitive-load environments (evening review…
Create low-cognitive-load environments (evening review, showers, commutes) for deferred emotional processing to complete, as prefrontal bandwidth freed from immediate tasks enables delayed labeling.
Work backward from disproportionate behavior to identify…
Work backward from disproportionate behavior to identify unfelt emotions, as behavioral anomalies often indicate emotions processed somatically but not yet consciously.
Identify the automatic thought mediating between trigger…
Identify the automatic thought mediating between trigger and emotion, not just the correlation between situation and response, because the appraisal is the actual causal mechanism.
Treat disproportionate emotional responses as signals…
Treat disproportionate emotional responses as signals of unresolved past experience rather than irrational overreactions, because intensity mismatches indicate trauma-linked associations.