Question
What is heuristics fast and frugal?
Quick Answer
A rule is a pre-committed decision that prevents you from having to re-decide the same thing every time.
Example: You used to evaluate every meeting invitation individually — weighing who's attending, the agenda, the opportunity cost. Now you have a rule: 'No meetings before 11 AM. No meetings without an agenda sent 24 hours in advance.' You didn't stop caring about meetings. You delegated the decision to a rule, freeing your judgment for situations the rule doesn't cover.
This concept is part of Delegation Patterns in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for delegation patterns.
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Go beyond the answer
This topic is part of Delegate to AI Without Losing Judgment — a guided sequence of 16 lessons.
After completing this path you will run a working delegation boundary: a criteria framework for what goes to AI versus what stays with your judgment, specifications clear enough that AI output comes back usable, a verification practice that catches errors without redoing the work, and the warning signs of over-delegation before your judgment atrophies.
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