Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1287 answers
An agent that fails to fire when it should leaves you exposed to undetected problems — the silence feels like safety, but it is blindness.
Record what you changed, why, and what happened — optimization without documentation is gambling.
Direct results and other peoples reactions are both valuable but different types of feedback.
Delegation ranges from "do exactly this" to "handle it entirely" — know which level you are using.
Run through scenarios mentally or in low-stakes situations before relying on a new agent.
When an agent fails to fire or produces bad results you learn how to improve it.
Action observation evaluation and adjustment form the basic feedback cycle.
Habits persist because they create their own reinforcing feedback.
Real situations often involve several interacting feedback loops simultaneously.
Expecting perfection creates fragility — expecting and handling errors creates resilience.
Expecting perfection creates fragility — expecting and handling errors creates resilience.
A meta-agent that coordinates other agents by deciding which should run when.
A meta-agent that coordinates other agents by deciding which should run when.
Agents degrade over time unless actively maintained — monitoring catches drift before it becomes failure.
Holding too much yourself creates bottlenecks, burnout, and prevents others (and systems) from developing capability.
An agent that fires when it shouldn't wastes your attention and erodes trust.
Measure things that predict outcomes rather than waiting for outcomes themselves.
Every agent has a trigger that activates it, a condition that validates it, and an action it takes.
Inventory your existing agents both designed and default to understand what is running.
Each agent should handle one specific situation — multi-purpose agents are fragile.
When an agent fails to fire or produces bad results you learn how to improve it.
Every agent embeds assumptions about the world — the schema it uses must be accurate.
Agents for recurring decision types like buy-versus-build or accept-versus-decline.
Agents for spending saving and investment decisions.