Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1480 answers
The best category systems adapt as you learn more about what you are organizing.
The best category systems adapt as you learn more about what you are organizing.
The best category systems adapt as you learn more about what you are organizing.
Pick the classification system you've used longest — your file folder structure, your task management categories, your note-taking tags, your bookshelf organization. Now conduct an evolution audit. First, write down the original categories as you remember them. Then write down the current.
Treating your classification system as finished. You'll recognize this pattern when you keep forcing new items into categories that no longer fit, when your 'Miscellaneous' or 'Other' bucket grows faster than any named category, or when you find yourself working around your own system rather than.
The best category systems adapt as you learn more about what you are organizing.
The connections between things carry as much meaning as the things themselves.
The connections between things carry as much meaning as the things themselves.
The connections between things carry as much meaning as the things themselves.
Pick five concepts you've captured in your knowledge system. Write each one on a separate card or line. Now draw every connection you can identify between them — label each connection with a verb: 'causes,' 'enables,' 'contradicts,' 'supports,' 'requires.' Count the relationships. You should have.
Collecting entities obsessively while never mapping what connects them. You end up with a warehouse of isolated facts — perfectly organized, perfectly useless. The notes are there. The understanding isn't. You'll recognize this failure when you can't explain how any two ideas in your system relate.
The connections between things carry as much meaning as the things themselves.
Writing down how two ideas relate prevents assuming a connection that does not exist.
Writing down how two ideas relate prevents assuming a connection that does not exist.
Writing down how two ideas relate prevents assuming a connection that does not exist.
Pick a domain where you make frequent judgments — your work, a hobby, a recurring decision. Write down five pairs of things you believe are related (e.g., 'morning exercise' and 'productive workday,' or 'client responsiveness' and 'project success'). For each pair, write one sentence articulating.
Operating on assumed relationships without examining them. You will recognize this pattern when you make decisions based on connections you have never articulated — when you avoid a strategy because you assume it conflicts with a goal (without checking), when you invest in an activity because you.
Writing down how two ideas relate prevents assuming a connection that does not exist.
Relationships can be causal, temporal, sequential, hierarchical, associative, and more. Naming the type of a relationship determines what reasoning you can perform across it.
Relationships can be causal, temporal, sequential, hierarchical, associative, and more. Naming the type of a relationship determines what reasoning you can perform across it.
Relationships can be causal, temporal, sequential, hierarchical, associative, and more. Naming the type of a relationship determines what reasoning you can perform across it.
Relationships can be causal, temporal, sequential, hierarchical, associative, and more. Naming the type of a relationship determines what reasoning you can perform across it.
Relationships can be causal, temporal, sequential, hierarchical, associative, and more. Naming the type of a relationship determines what reasoning you can perform across it.
Choose a belief you hold about how two things in your life are connected — for example, 'reading before bed helps me sleep' or 'team standups improve collaboration.' Write down the connection, then classify it: is it causal, associative, temporal, hierarchical, compositional, or something else?.