Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 2409 answers
Writing out your behavior chains reveals gaps and optimization opportunities.
Mentally rehearsing a chain before executing it strengthens the neural pathways.
Each chain has an optimal speed — rushing causes errors and dawdling causes disengagement.
Break complex tasks into short chains of three to five behaviors.
Link chains from one context to another — the work shutdown chain triggers the commute chain.
Chains that involve interactions with others need flexibility for the other persons response.
Periodically review and adjust your chains to keep them smooth and effective.
Pre-built chains for stressful situations prevent panic-driven reactive behavior.
A good chain executes a sophisticated sequence while requiring minimal conscious effort.
Your defaults determine what you do in the absence of deliberate choice.
What do you do when you have free time no agenda or feel bored — those are your defaults.
You can deliberately choose what your default behaviors are.
Setting a productive default means unstructured time naturally flows to something valuable.
Default food choices default exercise patterns default sleep behaviors.
How you behave by default in social situations reflects your automated social programming.
What you do automatically when stressed is one of your most important defaults to design.
What you reach for when bored reveals and reinforces your default patterns.
Compulsive phone-checking is a default behavior that can be replaced.
Replace an unproductive default with a specific productive alternative.
What your environment makes easiest to do becomes your behavioral default.
How you communicate when not thinking carefully about it is your communication default.
Your automatic emotional reaction to events is a default that can be redesigned.
Whether you default to optimism pessimism or realism shapes your interpretation of everything.
Whether you default to quick intuitive decisions or slow analytical ones matters.