Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Delete singleton tags, keep tags connecting 5+ notes…
When a tag appears on only one note, delete it during review; when a tag connects five notes from three different months, preserve it as earning its maintenance cost.
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.
When deferred maintenance costs 3x more to fix later…
When a deferred maintenance task's recovery cost exceeds its immediate execution cost by 3x or more, prioritize it above tasks with lower cost multiplication ratios.
Track operational debt explicitly — what was deferred…
Maintain an operational debt register that records what was deferred, when, why, and the estimated cost of continued deferral, reviewing it during weekly rhythms to distinguish strategic from accidental debt.
Track every automation in a registry — function, tool…
Maintain an automation registry listing each automation's function, tool, last verification date, failure indicators, and review cadence to prevent automation debt accumulation.
Weekly
Add a single recurring check at the end of each weekly review that compares your operational handbook to your actual operations and updates discrepancies immediately.
Budget 30 min to 2 hours weekly for system maintenance…
Calculate maintenance budget for entire operational system (30 minutes to 2 hours weekly) as binding constraint; reject additional components when aggregate maintenance would exceed sustainable capacity.
Test 'busywork' by asking what breaks if you stop…
For every operational task you currently frame as 'busywork,' write one sentence describing what would break if you stopped doing it for a month—if nothing breaks, eliminate it; if something breaks, relabel it as infrastructure.
Quarterly
Schedule quarterly depreciation reviews where you scan captured notes and bookmarks for information that has exceeded its useful life, then either update with current data, archive with context, or delete entirely to prevent outdated information from corrupting current decisions.
Execute cuts during the audit session itself — deferral…
Execute all identified cuts during the audit session itself rather than creating a deferral list, as audit outputs are decisions implemented immediately not intentions documented for later.
Weekly
Audit thinking environments weekly by comparing actual conditions against documented specifications to detect entropy, because environmental decay through accumulated objects, browser tabs, and permission drift is constant and unnoticed without structured review.
Document your knowledge system in 5 parts
Document system operations in five components—capture rules, processing workflow, retrieval method, review protocol, and evolution history—because each component addresses a distinct failure mode in knowledge system sustainability.
Restructure at the friction point, in the moment…
Restructure hierarchies at the specific node causing friction during the moment you feel the friction, rather than conducting proactive system-wide reorganizations, to keep restructuring costs small and diagnostic signals fresh.
A schema unreviewed for 6 months is like an unupdated…
Treat any schema that has gone six months without deliberate review the same as a software dependency unupdated for six months - not necessarily broken but requiring verification before continued reliance.
Invest quarterly maintenance in your top 5% most-connected…
Identify your top 5% of notes by connection count and schedule quarterly reviews where you verify each hub note is current, accurate, and well-linked, investing maintenance effort proportional to structural importance.
An unmaintained knowledge system is a degraded asset…
When external knowledge structures stop being actively traversed, maintained, and integrated into daily reasoning, treat them as degraded assets rather than cognitive extensions.
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.
Agent system review is essential maintenance, not optional…
Build feedback loops into agent systems through regular review asking whether agents fired, whether they produced intended outcomes, and whether conditions have changed, treating review as essential maintenance not optional improvement.
One week of zero firing = mandatory redesign — change…
When a trigger has not fired successfully in one week despite being needed, redesign it immediately by changing at least one of: salience, timing, modality, or context specificity.
Remove any trigger that produces action less than 80%…
Set your trigger signal-to-noise ratio threshold at 80% actionability minimum — remove any trigger that produces action fewer than 80% of times it fires.
Monthly trigger audit
Conduct monthly trigger audits by evaluating each trigger against four questions: Is it still firing? Do you respond when it fires? Is the behavior still relevant? Is calibration still correct?
Review all installed defaults quarterly — outdated…
Schedule quarterly reviews of every default you have installed in your systems and processes, because contexts change and outdated defaults silently steer toward yesterday's goals without conscious detection.