Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1675 answers
Understanding your past agents — even failed ones — reveals patterns in how you build cognitive systems.
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.
Treating past agents as embarrassments rather than evidence. You remember the system you built and abandoned, feel a twinge of shame about the wasted effort, and avoid examining it closely. This is the archaeological equivalent of bulldozing a dig site because the ruins are ugly. The information.
Understanding your past agents — even failed ones — reveals patterns in how you build cognitive systems.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
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,.
Treating the portfolio view as a reason to create agents for every gap you find. You see three domains with zero coverage and immediately start building new habits for all of them. Now you have twelve agents running simultaneously, your cognitive overhead doubles, and half of them fail within two.
Your full set of active agents is a portfolio that should be balanced and diversified.
Periodically review and rebalance your agent portfolio — retire underperformers, invest in high-value agents.
Periodically review and rebalance your agent portfolio — retire underperformers, invest in high-value agents.
Periodically review and rebalance your agent portfolio — retire underperformers, invest in high-value agents.
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.
Treating all agents as equally important and never retiring any of them. This is portfolio drift — the cognitive equivalent of letting your investment allocations wander unchecked. You'll know you're in this failure mode when you feel vaguely overwhelmed by your own systems but can't name which.
Periodically review and rebalance your agent portfolio — retire underperformers, invest in high-value agents.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.