Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 6402 answers
Delegating too much creates disconnection from the work that matters and atrophies critical skills.
The act of writing generates new thoughts rather than merely documenting existing ones. Writing is not transcription — it is the primary mechanism through which vague intuitions become precise understanding.
If processing an item takes less than two minutes, do it immediately — deferring it costs more than completing it.
If processing an item takes less than two minutes, do it immediately — deferring it costs more than completing it.
New captures go to a hot inbox — only processed items move to permanent storage. The separation protects both speed of capture and integrity of storage.
New captures go to a hot inbox — only processed items move to permanent storage. The separation protects both speed of capture and integrity of storage.
You overestimate the likelihood of events you can easily recall examples of. The availability heuristic substitutes the question "how frequent is this?" with the question "how easily can I think of an example?" — and the substitution happens below conscious awareness, which means you feel like you.
The most valuable thing to capture is why you chose what you chose. Decisions decay faster than facts — and unlike facts, they cannot be reconstructed after the outcome is known.
You need rules for choosing which schema to apply in a given situation.
An unnamed pattern is invisible — naming it makes it manipulable.
Regularly audit what you consume and cut sources that produce more noise than signal. Without scheduled review, your information environment silently degrades — and you adapt to the noise without noticing.
Sometimes you need the new schema to handle cases the old schema covered.
Sometimes you need the new schema to handle cases the old schema covered.
The faster you get feedback on an action the faster you can adjust.
Asking why five times in succession usually reaches the root cause of a problem.
Asking why five times in succession usually reaches the root cause of a problem.
Too many agents create coordination overhead that can exceed their collective value.
Every pattern has a trigger — identifying the trigger is the key to changing the pattern.
Every pattern has a trigger — identifying the trigger is the key to changing the pattern.
Your notebooks, tools, and systems are not aids to thinking — they are part of your thinking. When a tool plays the same functional role as a cognitive process, it is a cognitive process.
Run through scenarios mentally or in low-stakes situations before relying on a new agent.
A note that captures exactly one idea can be understood without its original context, linked to any argument, and recombined indefinitely — a note that captures two ideas can do none of these things reliably.
An atomic note should carry enough context to be understood without its original source.
When you trust your capture system your mind stops trying to hold everything.