Agent Fundamentals
Understand what cognitive agents are and how to design them.
An agent is a system that acts on your behalf
Cognitive agents are repeatable processes you design to handle recurring decisions.
You already have agents you did not design
Your habits and automatic reactions are agents that were installed without your conscious input.
Designed agents replace default agents
Every deliberate agent you create replaces an unconscious default.
Agent components: trigger, condition, and action
Every agent has a trigger that activates it, a condition that validates it, and an action it takes.
Agents reduce decision fatigue
When an agent handles a recurring decision you preserve energy for novel decisions.
Agents must be specific and testable
Vague agents do not fire reliably — specificity is required.
Internal agents versus external agents
Internal agents run in your mind while external agents are embedded in tools and systems.
The agent audit
Inventory your existing agents both designed and default to understand what is running.
Agent reliability matters more than agent sophistication
A simple agent that fires consistently beats a complex agent that fires intermittently.
Agent scope should be narrow
Each agent should handle one specific situation — multi-purpose agents are fragile.
Document your agents
Written agent descriptions can be reviewed refined and shared.
Test agents before deploying
Run through scenarios mentally or in low-stakes situations before relying on a new agent.
Agent failure is learning data
When an agent fails to fire or produces bad results you learn how to improve it.
Agents operate on schemas
Every agent embeds assumptions about the world — the schema it uses must be accurate.
Social agents
Agents for how to respond in social situations like receiving criticism or giving feedback.
Decision agents
Agents for recurring decision types like buy-versus-build or accept-versus-decline.
Communication agents
Agents for how to structure emails presentations and difficult conversations.
Health agents
Agents for sleep exercise nutrition and stress management decisions.
Financial agents
Agents for spending saving and investment decisions.
Agent thinking is systems thinking applied to yourself
Designing agents for your own cognition is applying systems design to the most important system you manage.