Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1100 answers
Multiple paths between important nodes make a system more robust.
When your prediction is wrong you have learned something about where your schema is off.
Looking for evidence that supports your schema is not the same as rigorously testing it.
You can build schemas at different levels of abstraction each serving different purposes.
Concepts are nodes and relationships are edges — together they form a graph.
Concepts are nodes and relationships are edges — together they form a graph.
Areas where connections should exist but do not indicate knowledge gaps.
Something can be true now and have been false before without contradiction.
Something can be true now and have been false before without contradiction.
Assigning types to objects restricts what operations make sense on them.
Items that do not fit neatly into any category expose weaknesses in your system.
Real knowledge often has items that belong to multiple parent categories. When you force every concept into a single branch of a tree, you destroy information. Lattice structures — where a node can have multiple parents — preserve the multidimensional nature of knowledge. The tree is a special.
Your risk model determines what you attempt and what you avoid.
The gap between what you say you value and what you actually do is the most important contradiction to examine.
Some genuine tensions must be managed rather than resolved.
Some genuine tensions must be managed rather than resolved.
Set aside time specifically to look for connections between your schemas. Integration does not happen automatically — the connections between what you know in one domain and what you know in another remain invisible until you deliberately sit down and look for them. A periodic integration review.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Nested categories with parent-child relationships create powerful organizational structures.
Defining roles for people and objects clarifies what each is responsible for.
Finding out your schema is wrong teaches you more than confirming it is right.
The shortest route between two seemingly unrelated ideas shows how they connect.
The shortest route between two seemingly unrelated ideas shows how they connect.
Some contradictions are features not bugs — they reflect genuine complexity in reality.