Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1668 answers
Select a system, habit, or process you have been actively trying to improve. Draw a simple chart: X-axis is total effort invested (hours, iterations, dollars), Y-axis is total improvement gained. Plot your best estimates for each round of optimization. Identify the inflection point — the moment.
Identify one thing in your life you are currently optimizing — a workflow, a habit, a project, a skill, a system. Write down the specific threshold at which it would be 'good enough' for its actual purpose. Then honestly assess: are you above or below that threshold? If you are above it, write a.
Choose one agent, automation, or recurring process in your life — a morning routine, a writing workflow, an AI prompt you use regularly, a decision-making checklist. Design an A/B test for it. Write down: (1) The current version (A) and what you suspect could be improved. (2) A specific, single.
Identify something you are currently trying to improve — an AI agent, a workflow, a habit, a creative process, a system. List every change you are considering making. Now rank them by your best guess of impact. Take only the top-ranked change and implement it in isolation. Define your measurement:.
Select one agent — a habit, routine, system, or workflow — that you have optimized at least three times. Write down: (1) the specific improvements each optimization round produced, (2) whether the gains are getting smaller with each round, and (3) the fundamental framework assumptions the agent.
Pick one agent — a routine, habit, or recurring process — that you perform at least three times per week. Time it from trigger to completion, breaking it into discrete steps. Identify which steps are execution (actually doing the work) and which are overhead (setup, transition, context-switching,.
Pick one agent (habit, routine, decision rule) you run at least three times per week. For the next five instances, score each outcome on a simple 1-5 accuracy scale: Did it produce the result it was supposed to? Not 'did it feel good' or 'did it happen fast' — did it hit the target? Calculate your.
Map a multi-agent system you run — a morning routine, a work process, a creative pipeline, a team workflow. List every component agent. Now list every transition between agents. For each transition, estimate how much time, energy, or quality is lost in the handoff. Identify the three most.
Select one process you perform regularly — a weekly review, a project kickoff sequence, a content creation workflow, a decision-making protocol. Write down every step in the process, numbered sequentially. For each step, answer two questions: (1) What value does this step produce that would be.
Pick one cognitive agent that has been underperforming. Block two 60-to-90-minute sessions this week — non-negotiable calendar entries, not aspirational intentions. Before each session, write one sentence defining what 'better' means for this agent (faster trigger recognition, fewer false.
Select one agent, workflow, or system you are currently using — this could be an AI agent, an automated pipeline, a personal routine, or a professional process. Define three measurable metrics that capture its performance. These should be specific and quantifiable: accuracy percentage, completion.
Pick one cognitive agent you use regularly — a decision-making heuristic, a weekly review process, a note-taking workflow, a communication template. Write down three questions: (1) When did I last deliberately improve this? (2) What has changed in my context since I built it? (3) What is the.
Pick one cognitive agent you currently run — a decision protocol, a review habit, a planning routine, or a journaling practice. Map it to the four lifecycle stages: (1) When and why did you create it? (2) When did you actually deploy it into daily use? (3) What maintenance have you done — or.
Choose one behavior you have been trying to adopt but have not successfully made automatic. Work through the five-stage agent creation process for it: (1) Identify the need — what specific problem does this agent solve? Write it as a gap between your current state and your desired state. (2).
Choose one cognitive agent you have designed but not yet deployed — or one you deployed but that never became consistent. Write down three things: (1) the date you first attempted to run this agent, (2) how many consecutive days it operated before the first failure, and (3) what happened after the.
Identify one agent you've deployed in the last 30 days — a habit, a decision rule, a review practice, anything you explicitly designed and started running. Write down: (1) How many times you've actually executed it. (2) What situations caused you to skip or override it. (3) Whether it has a.
List your five most important cognitive agents — habits, routines, systems, or recurring commitments. For each one, write down: (a) When you last deliberately reviewed whether it was still working as designed. (b) What maintenance cadence it should have — monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually —.
Pick one agent you currently run — a habit, routine, decision framework, or mental model that feels sluggish or unreliable. Write two columns: 'Evolve' and 'Replace.' Under Evolve, list specific modifications you would make to restore or improve it. Under Replace, describe what a fresh agent.
Select three cognitive agents you currently run — habits, routines, decision protocols, or review systems. For each one, write three retirement criteria: one based on performance (a measurable decline in the output that originally justified the agent), one based on relevance (a change in your.
Identify one agent — a habit, routine, system, or delegation — that you have already retired or that you suspect should be retired. Write its retirement document. Use four sections: (1) What it did — not just the visible output, but every downstream function it served, including ones you only.
Identify one agent (habit, routine, system, or practice) that you've retired or abandoned in the last year. Write down: (1) what responsibilities it carried, (2) which of those responsibilities are now handled by something else, (3) which are handled by nothing. For each orphaned responsibility,.
Identify three cognitive agents (systems, habits, routines, frameworks) you have retired or abandoned in the past five years. For each one, write down: (1) what problem it was designed to solve, (2) how long it lasted, (3) what caused its retirement. Then look across all three entries for a shared.
Create a full inventory of every cognitive agent currently active in your life. Include habits, routines, checklists, decision rules, automated workflows, recurring calendar blocks, and any system that runs on your behalf with some regularity. For each, write one line describing its domain (work,.
List every active cognitive agent you maintain — every recurring process, checklist, decision framework, or structured routine you run regularly. For each one, score two things on a 1-to-5 scale: (1) how often it actually fires in a typical week, and (2) how much its output changes your behavior.