Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1480 answers
Operating on a flawed schema produces systematically flawed decisions.
Identify one schema you currently operate on that you've never explicitly tested. Write it down as a single declarative sentence (e.g., 'My team values autonomy over guidance' or 'Our customers buy on price'). Now list three decisions you've made in the last month that this schema influenced. For.
Treating this lesson as an indictment of other people's schemas while exempting your own. The most expensive bad schemas are the ones you've held so long they feel like reality rather than interpretation. If you finish this lesson thinking 'I see how others fall into this trap,' you've.
Operating on a flawed schema produces systematically flawed decisions.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Review the schemas you have built or encountered across Phase 11. Choose three — one you constructed from scratch, one you inherited and inspected, and one you discovered was flawed. For each, write a one-paragraph retrospective: What did it organize? What did it reveal that was previously.
Treating schema construction as something you learned about rather than something you practice. You can narrate the entire twenty-lesson arc of Phase 11 — definitions, properties, limits, dynamics, costs — and still walk into tomorrow's decisions using the same unexamined implicit models you had.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.
Every category you create determines what you group together and what you separate.
Every category you create determines what you group together and what you separate.
Every category you create determines what you group together and what you separate.
Every category you create determines what you group together and what you separate.
Pick one domain of your life you actively manage — your task list, your bookshelf, your notes, your contacts. Write down the categories you currently use. Then invent a completely different classification system for the same items — organize by urgency instead of project, by emotional weight.
Treating your current categories as 'the way things are' rather than a system you chose. You'll know you've fallen into this when someone suggests a different way of grouping and your first reaction is 'that's wrong' rather than 'that's different — what would it make visible?' The failure is.
Every category you create determines what you group together and what you separate.
There is no single correct way to categorize — categories serve purposes.
There is no single correct way to categorize — categories serve purposes.
There is no single correct way to categorize — categories serve purposes.
Pick a category you use frequently — in your work, your note system, your daily language. It might be 'urgent,' 'technical debt,' 'A-player,' or 'healthy food.' Write down three things: (1) Who created this category? (2) What purpose does it serve? (3) What does it make invisible? If you struggle.
Treating your own categories as objective features of reality. You will know this is happening when someone proposes an alternative categorization and your first reaction is that they are wrong rather than that they are serving a different purpose. The emotional signature is irritation at.
There is no single correct way to categorize — categories serve purposes.