Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1675 answers
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
Identify one of your most reliable existing agents — a habit, routine, or behavioral pattern that fires consistently and produces good results. Write down its core components: (1) the trigger that activates it, (2) the environment it operates in, (3) the sequence of steps it follows, (4) the.
Inheriting too much. The most common failure in agent inheritance is treating the parent agent as a fixed template and copying it entirely rather than selectively extracting the components that are actually relevant. A person who has a reliable morning exercise agent tries to build a morning.
New agents can inherit properties and patterns from existing successful agents rather than being built from scratch.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Review the cognitive agents you have built or are building. Identify two or three that share a similar structure — similar trigger types, similar response patterns, similar monitoring needs. Now extract the common structure into a template. Write it out explicitly: what are the slots that need to.
Treating templates as rigid prescriptions rather than flexible scaffolding. The person who falls into this trap creates a single 'master template' and forces every new agent to conform to it, regardless of fit. A boundary agent gets shoved into a routine template. A creative practice gets squeezed.
Create reusable templates for common agent patterns to accelerate creation of new agents.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Open your phone, your browser bookmarks, your note-taking system, and your calendar. For each, list every recurring process, saved workflow, or habitual routine that you engage with at least weekly. Next to each one, write its original purpose and whether it still serves that purpose today. Mark.
Performing the audit intellectually but refusing to act on the results. You identify five legacy agents, nod at the list, and change nothing — because each one feels too small to matter, or because you convince yourself that someday you'll need it. The accumulation is the problem. Five agents that.
Some agents outlive their usefulness but persist because removing them feels risky or costly. Legacy agents consume resources, create confusion, and block the deployment of better alternatives. Identifying them is the first step toward a clean epistemic portfolio.
Documentation should evolve with the agent — outdated docs are worse than no docs.
Too many agents create coordination overhead that can exceed their collective value.
Too many agents create coordination overhead that can exceed their collective value.