Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1287 answers
Long delays between action and feedback make the loop harder to learn from.
For every important process have a documented way to recover from common failures.
When multiple agents need the same scarce resource like your attention define allocation rules.
When multiple agents need the same scarce resource like your attention define allocation rules.
Optimization improves within a framework; innovation replaces the framework. Know which you need.
Documentation should evolve with the agent — outdated docs are worse than no docs.
Documentation should evolve with the agent — outdated docs are worse than no docs.
Too many agents create coordination overhead that can exceed their collective value.
Internal agents run in your mind while external agents are embedded in tools and systems.
Agents for how to structure emails presentations and difficult conversations.
You are designing the user experience of your own cognitive systems.
For most decisions good enough is better than perfect because the search cost exceeds the improvement.
Record decisions, their reasoning, and their outcomes to improve future decision-making.
Reviewing what happened after completing a task surfaces errors for future correction.
Effectiveness means your agent produces the intended outcome, not just that it runs.
Agents for how to structure emails presentations and difficult conversations.
Self-correcting loops maintain balance by countering deviations.
Self-correcting loops maintain balance by countering deviations.
For every important process have a documented way to recover from common failures.
An agent that acts fast but wrong is worse than one that acts slowly but right.
What you read shapes what you think which shapes what you seek out to read.
Regularly check that your feedback loops are still connected to meaningful outcomes.
Accept that some error rate is normal and define how much error is tolerable.
Optimizing before you understand the system is the root of much wasted effort.