Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1287 answers
Agents degrade over time unless actively maintained — monitoring catches drift before it becomes failure.
Automate monitoring wherever possible to reduce overhead while maintaining visibility.
Written reflection is the oldest and most versatile form of self-monitoring.
Monitoring without action is observation theater — data must drive decisions.
Improving anything other than the bottleneck is wasted effort.
The optimal amount of optimization is not infinite — there is a point where you should stop and move on.
A reliable agent works every time, not just when conditions are perfect.
Optimize how agents connect and hand off to each other, not just how each agent performs in isolation.
Record what you changed, why, and what happened — optimization without documentation is gambling.
Record what you changed, why, and what happened — optimization without documentation is gambling.
New agents are most fragile in their first month — they need extra attention and support to survive.
New agents are most fragile in their first month — they need extra attention and support to survive.
Sometimes you should improve an existing agent; sometimes you should replace it entirely.
Too many agents create coordination overhead that can exceed their collective value.
Your habits and automatic reactions are agents that were installed without your conscious input.
Every agent has a trigger that activates it, a condition that validates it, and an action it takes.
Every agent has a trigger that activates it, a condition that validates it, and an action it takes.
Agents for sleep exercise nutrition and stress management decisions.
Agents for sleep exercise nutrition and stress management decisions.
Designing agents for your own cognition is applying systems design to the most important system you manage.
Linking an agent to a specific event like arriving at work or opening your laptop.
Linking an agent to a specific event like arriving at work or opening your laptop.
Linking an agent to a specific event like arriving at work or opening your laptop.
Too sensitive and the agent fires too often — too insensitive and it never fires.