Meta-Schemas
Build schemas about how your schemas work.
A meta-schema is a schema about schemas
You can build models of how your models work — this is the beginning of recursive self-improvement.
Know your schema creation process
How do you typically form new mental models? Understanding your process lets you improve it.
Schema quality criteria
Define what makes a schema good — accuracy predictive power simplicity scope.
Schema inventory
List your most important schemas so you can maintain and improve them systematically.
Schema dependencies
Some schemas depend on others — map these dependencies to understand cascading effects.
Schema conflict resolution
When two schemas contradict you need a meta-schema for deciding which to trust.
Schema selection heuristics
You need rules for choosing which schema to apply in a given situation.
Schemas about learning
Your schema for how learning works determines how effectively you learn.
Schemas about change
Your model of how change happens determines how you approach change.
Schemas about other people
Your default assumptions about human nature shape every interaction.
Schemas about yourself
Your self-model is the most consequential schema you maintain.
Schemas about time
How you model time determines how you plan and prioritize.
Schemas about risk
Your risk model determines what you attempt and what you avoid.
Schemas about knowledge itself
Your epistemology — your theory of knowledge — is the meta-schema that governs all others.
Evaluating schema sources
Not all sources of schemas are equally reliable — evaluate where your models come from.
Schema abstraction layers
You can build schemas at different levels of abstraction each serving different purposes.
The recursive nature of meta-schemas
Meta-schemas are themselves schemas that can be inspected and improved.
Limits of meta-cognition
There are limits to how much you can observe your own thinking — know these limits.
Meta-schemas are your cognitive operating system
Your meta-schemas form the operating system that runs all your other cognitive software.
Upgrading the operating system is the highest leverage work
Improving your meta-schemas improves everything built on top of them.