Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Habits as Context-Response Associations
Habits form when repeated behavior in stable contexts produces rewards, creating automatic context-response associations that trigger behavior without conscious deliberation.
Improve one thing every time you touch a note — kaizen…
Each time you review or link a note, make one small improvement (sharpen title, add missing context, split tangled claim) rather than scheduling separate cleanup sessions.
Anchor one capture trigger to an existing habit — six…
Start with one capture trigger anchored to your most natural existing habit, run it for six weeks minimum before adding a second trigger.
Bottleneck journal
Record bottleneck journal entries in under two minutes using six fields only (date, constraint name, severity 1-5, type, intervention, result) to maintain practice sustainability.
Tier your habits for graceful degradation — know which…
Rank operational habits into three tiers (minimum viable, performance-improving, optimizations) so you know which to preserve under moderate disruption (tiers 1-2) and severe disruption (tier 1 only).
Restart habits tier by tier after disruption — confirm…
Restart operations sequentially after disruption by adding tier 1 first, confirming stability, then adding tier 2, then tier 3, rather than attempting simultaneous restart of all habits.
Make implementation intention triggers highly specific…
When using implementation intentions to create behavioral pauses, specify the triggering situation at high detail ('If I receive code review feedback challenging my approach...') rather than generically ('If I get criticism...') to increase cue detectability.
Recognition does not eliminate patterns — track…
Do not expect pattern recognition alone to eliminate the pattern—track the ratio of pattern-following to pattern-breaking instances over weeks rather than demanding immediate control, because automaticity requires repeated override practice to weaken.
Protect a keystone habit by guarding its triggers…
When a keystone habit produces cascading benefits, protect its trigger conditions and structural enablers rather than optimizing the habit's internal execution.
Build support structures before the trough hits…
Pre-load support structures during the phase before a known cyclical trough rather than attempting to maintain behavior through willpower during the trough itself.
Life transitions are habit-redesign windows — old cues…
During major life transitions (moves, job changes, context disruptions), deliberately redesign behavioral patterns rather than waiting for them to reform automatically, because environmental cue disruption creates a window where habits are more amenable to conscious redesign.
Project daily patterns forward 365 times before deciding…
Project each daily pattern forward using compound math (what does 365 repetitions produce?) before deciding whether to maintain or change it, because linear intuition systematically underestimates exponential outcomes.
Monthly
Audit your daily pattern portfolio by labeling each recurring behavior as appreciating (+), depreciating (-), or neutral (=), then make exactly one trade per month (reduce one depreciating pattern by 50%, install one appreciating pattern at minimal scale).
When behavior change fails, adjust the cue/friction/reward…
When a behavior change fails within one week despite environmental redesign, modify the cue visibility, friction points, or reward structure rather than attributing failure to willpower or abandoning the approach.
Stack behavior change
Stack behavioral change interventions by addressing cue visibility first, then friction reduction, then reward design—each layer compounds on the previous rather than operating independently.
Attach daily writing to an existing automatic behavior…
Anchor daily externalization to an existing automatic behavior (opening laptop, pouring coffee, post-standup) rather than relying on time-based or motivation-based triggers, because context-stable cues accelerate habit automaticity.
Start daily writing at 3 sentences, 90 seconds
Begin daily externalization with three sentences answering one question ('What am I trying to figure out right now?') for 90 seconds, expanding only after the behavior fires automatically without deliberation.
Attach 'When [situation], I will [action]' to every…
Write implementation intentions beneath each written goal using 'When [specific recurring situation], I will [specific first action]' format, specifying concrete triggers rather than time-based or motivation-based conditions.
Put schema reviews on your actual calendar — subjective…
Schedule schema reviews on actual calendars at the assigned cadence rather than relying on subjective feelings of uncertainty to prompt reconsideration.
Diagnose failing behavioral agents by component — trigger…
When a designed agent fails to fire consistently after two weeks, diagnose whether the trigger is not salient enough, the condition is too restrictive, or the action requires too much effort, because each failure type requires different corrections.
Measure behavioral agent progress by displacement rate…
Track agent displacement by measuring the percentage of times your designed agent fires instead of the default, not by whether you execute perfectly every time, because replacement is gradual and competes against thousands of prior reinforcements.
Write all three components of default agents — even…
When reverse-engineering a default agent, write down all three components (trigger, condition, action) even if the condition is 'always' or appears absent, because making the implicit condition explicit reveals where the default fires indiscriminately.
Agent triggers must be observable or measurable — vague…
Define agent triggers as observable external events or measurable internal states rather than subjective feelings or abstract conditions, because vague triggers cannot be recognized reliably when they occur.
Review new agents weekly, established ones monthly…
Set agent review cadences at 7 days for new habits, 30 days for established behaviors, and immediately after any major context change, because review timing must match the actual rate of drift in each agent type.