Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1668 answers
Identify one piece of knowledge, skill, or insight that your meaning framework tells you matters — something connected to a value or purpose in your personal philosophy. Now design a concrete act of generosity around that knowledge. The act must meet three criteria: it gives something genuinely.
Identify three situations in the past month that disturbed your equanimity — events that produced anxiety, frustration, anger, or despair that lasted longer than the event itself. For each situation, write answers to two questions. First: 'What was threatened?' Name the specific thing you feared.
Map your energy landscape for the past week. List your five most energizing activities and your five most draining activities. For each energizing activity, identify the specific element of your meaning framework (from L-1582) that the activity connects to. For each draining activity, identify.
Conduct a meaning evolution audit. Read your personal philosophy from L-1582 in its entirety. For each element — each value, commitment, or purpose statement — answer three questions. First: 'Is this still genuinely mine, or have I outgrown it?' Mark elements that feel inherited, obligatory, or.
Conduct a pre-mortem on your meaning framework. Imagine three scenarios that could trigger a meaning crisis: a major professional disruption (you lose your role or your company fails), a significant relationship change (a key relationship ends or transforms), and a health event (you receive a.
Select five lessons from different phases that shaped your thinking or practice most significantly — one each from perception, structure/schema, operations, behavior/habit, and emotion. For each lesson, write one sentence answering: 'How does this lesson serve my meaning framework?' Then write one.
Write a letter to yourself one year from now about your meaning framework. Describe the framework as it currently stands — its core commitments, its strengths, and the areas where you suspect it will evolve. Make three specific predictions: one element you believe will remain unchanged, one.
Write the executive summary of your meaning framework — the version you would give to someone who has ten minutes to understand the infrastructure you have built. The summary should include: your core purpose (one sentence), your three to five primary values (one phrase each), the daily practice.
In your next team meeting, conduct a 'collective cognition audit.' At the end of the meeting, ask the team three questions and record the answers: (1) 'What did we decide today, and who made each decision?' — if the team cannot clearly identify decisions and their makers, the collective thinking.
Select a recurring team process — a deployment, a sprint planning, a design review, or an incident response. Interview or survey three team members independently, asking each to describe: (1) the steps in the process, in order; (2) who is responsible for each step; (3) what triggers the process to.
Choose a domain where your team frequently disagrees or miscommunicates — an architectural decision, a process, a role boundary, or a planning approach. Ask each team member to independently create a visual representation of their understanding: a diagram, a flowchart, a list of steps, a decision.
Conduct a bias audit of your team's last three major decisions. For each decision, answer four questions: (1) Who spoke first, and did the final decision align with their position? (Anchoring test.) (2) Was any significant piece of information held by only one or two members? Did it surface during.
Assess your team's psychological safety using Edmondson's seven-item scale. Ask each team member to anonymously rate their agreement (1-5) with these statements: (1) If I make a mistake on this team, it is held against me. (2) Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues..
Map your team's cognitive diversity profile. For each team member (including yourself), identify three dimensions: (1) Educational background — what disciplines did they study? (2) Professional path — what roles and industries have they worked in? (3) Problem-solving style — do they tend to start.
Build a transactive memory map for your team. Create a matrix with system components, processes, or knowledge domains as rows and team members as columns. For each cell, use a simple rating: E (expert — deep knowledge, can solve novel problems), K (knowledgeable — can handle routine issues), F.
Audit your team's last five significant decisions using this framework. For each decision, answer: (1) Was the decision-maker clearly identified before the discussion? (2) Was there a mechanism for independent input before group discussion? (3) Were decision criteria stated before options were.
At your next team retrospective, replace the standard 'What went well / What didn't / What should we change' format with a structured reflection protocol. Step 1 (5 minutes): Each team member independently writes answers to three questions — 'What surprised me?' 'What pattern am I seeing.
Assess your team's conflict profile using Jehn's three-type framework. For each type, rate your team on a 1-5 scale. (1) Task conflict — 'Team members regularly disagree about ideas, approaches, and technical decisions.' (2) Process conflict — 'Team members disagree about who should do what and.
Audit one recurring team meeting using these five metrics. (1) Preparation ratio — what percentage of attendees read pre-work before the meeting? (2) Voice distribution — how many unique people speak substantively? (3) Decision clarity — does the meeting end with clearly stated decisions and.
Identify one recurring synchronous meeting that could be partially or fully replaced by asynchronous collaboration. Design an async alternative using this template: (1) Document format — what information will be shared and in what structure? (2) Contribution protocol — who contributes, by when,.
Conduct a 'team memory audit.' List the ten most important pieces of knowledge your team holds — architectural decisions, operational procedures, customer context, historical lessons. For each item, answer three questions: (1) Where is this knowledge stored? (Specific location — not 'somewhere in.
Map one critical information flow in your team. Choose a type of information that matters — customer feedback, production alerts, requirement changes, or technical discoveries. Trace its path from origin to the person who acts on it. For each step, answer: (1) How does the information move from.
Track your team's attention allocation for one week. At the end of each day, have each team member spend two minutes recording how they spent their time across three categories: (1) Planned work — tasks aligned with the team's stated priorities. (2) Reactive work — tasks that were not planned but.
Map your team's cognitive load distribution. For each team member, estimate three dimensions on a 1-5 scale: (1) Task complexity — how cognitively demanding is their current work? (2) Context switching — how many different contexts do they manage simultaneously? (3) Interrupt load — how frequently.