Questions

Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 9,738 answers

All topics agents1,675 behavior607 decision-making8 emotion631 meaning622 operations1,214 organization300 perception1,498 schema1,480 sovereignty1,703

All types definition6,402 how-to1,668 why1,668

beginner4,568 intermediate3,617 advanced1,553

sovereigntyintermediate

What is designing better defaults?

Most decisions are made by default — design defaults that serve you.

Also asked: default choices behavior changedefault effect decision making

How tosovereigntyintermediate

How do I practice default effect decision making?

Conduct a default audit of your daily environment. Divide a page into three columns: Digital Defaults, Physical Defaults, and Social Defaults. Under Digital, list the first five apps or tools you interact with each morning and identify what each one does when you take no action — what is the home screen, what notifications are enabled, what does the app open to?

sovereigntyintermediate

Why does default effect decision making fail?

Believing that awareness of the default effect is sufficient to overcome it. Knowing that defaults are powerful does not make you immune to them — it makes you informed while remaining vulnerable. The cognitive savings that make defaults effective operate below conscious deliberation. Even behavioral scientists who study the default effect daily accept defaults in domains they are not paying attention to.

sovereigntyintermediate

What is friction engineering behavior change?

Adding friction to bad choices and removing friction from good choices changes behavior.

Also asked: adding friction to bad habitsremoving friction from good habitssludge behavioral sciencechoice architecture frictionfriction engineering behavior change

How tosovereigntyintermediate

How do I practice friction engineering behavior change?

Run a friction audit on one behavior you want to do more of and one behavior you want to do less of. For each, list every micro-step between the impulse and the action. Count them. Then redesign both: remove at least two steps from the desired behavior and add at least two steps to the undesired behavior.

sovereigntyintermediate

Why does friction engineering behavior change fail?

Treating friction engineering as a one-time fix rather than an ongoing calibration. You rearrange your environment once, the behavior improves for two weeks, and then you slowly undo the friction: you bring the phone back to the nightstand because you need the alarm, you reinstall the app because you need it for just one thing, you move the junk food back to eye level because you had guests.

sovereigntyintermediate

What is path of least resistance?

People follow the easiest path — make the desired path the easiest.

Also asked: friction and behavior changedefault behaviorenvironmental design for habitspath of least resistance

How tosovereigntyintermediate

How do I practice path of least resistance?

Map the paths of least resistance in your daily routine. Pick three recurring behaviors — one you want to keep, one you want to start, and one you want to stop. For each, trace the literal sequence of steps from trigger to action. Count the physical steps, the decisions required, the friction points.

sovereigntyintermediate

Why does path of least resistance fail?

Treating path design as manipulation and therefore resisting it. Some people, upon realizing they can engineer their own behavior through environmental design, feel uncomfortable — as if they are tricking themselves. This misses the point. You are already following paths of least resistance that someone else designed: app developers, office architects, grocery store layout planners.

sovereigntyintermediate

What is choice reduction?

Fewer options leads to better decisions — eliminate unnecessary choices.

Also asked: too many optionsdecision quality

sovereigntyintermediate

What is pre-decision making?

Making decisions in advance removes them from the moment of action.