The JAMSTACK Codex: Guiding Precepts for Cognitive Optimization
How the Top 2% Manage Information
You can be a peak performer, even if you don’t have a genius-level IQ or elite academic credentials.
You already have the raw materials - what you need is an efficient system that enables you use your “hardware” to its maximum capabilities.
The JAMSTACK Codex will help you do that.
Before You Read
While the Codex will provide you with a systematic approach to efficiently processing information, your processing will only be as good as the input.
Make sure to review the final section of the previous post, which provides simple rules to filter information and ensure your intake is:
Relevant
High-quality
Intermittent
The following principles are laid out in general linear fashion, but it is not necessarily step-by-step. Some steps must come before others by default, however, the purpose is to give you the building blocks to fashion your own system by which to process information.
You also don’t need to develop an onerous, analog note-taking system for extensive research. If you are an academic, this would be helpful, but for most people it won’t be needed. These are guidelines on how to process information in a format that is general enough to be flexible to your needs.
The JAMSTACK Codex
The Codex principles are listed in order of how they should be completed, as noted above, but I must emphasize that this is not a a rigid system.
As you adopt the practice for routine thinking and processing of information, some steps will be skipped. Others, rearranged.
The first letter of each principle, naturally, aligns with JAMSTACK for easy recall.
Just-In-Time Access
Adaptive Archiving
Memory Optimization
Scheduled Seeding
Timely Application
Analog Separation
Contextual Cross-Linking
Knowledge Munging
Let’s begin.
Just-in-Time Access
Technically part of the filtering process, this is a contrast to “just-in-case access.”
The brutal truth is that most information we save, we never use.
Just-in-case information would be something you find interesting, or that may be useful someday. In terms of efficiency, this is wasteful and unproductive.
There are some leisurely uses for just-in-case information, such as keeping a swipe file - a concept borrowed from copywriting and advertising professionals.
Just-in-time information is access to knowledge that you need at the moment you need it. Most of this information is just the knowledge in your brain. Anything else has been made available through modern technology. Google and the internet as a whole has given us access all of the information we need, just a click away, just-in-time.
Side Note: One aspect of just-in-time information is nuanced enough to be deserving of its own post. That is the concept of when a piece of information is important. It’s not referring to when you would use it, per say, but more refers to a mental model of thinking of information in terms “when” instead of “what.”
This, and many other concepts to shift your frame of thinking, are found in Master Questions.
When analyzing information, determine whether it can be useful right now. If it can’t it’s vanity and should be disregarded.
Adaptive Archiving
Once information is filtered and found to be relevant and high-quality, you can then begin the step of storage.
This step and the next step go hand-in-hand, as how you store information depends on what information it is and when precisely you need it.
If you are going to the store to buy groceries, you write the list on a piece of paper or use the method of loci to mentally recall it. The method used should be as temporary as the need to access the information.
If you are studying for a test, the information should be encoded into your short-term memory and made accessible for retrieval on test day.
If you are compounding your general knowledge to have more success in life, love, and business, you should use something like a Zettelkasten so that thoughts can be revisited and interacted with.
Recording a history of your life, as well as basic journal keeping fall into this category as well.
The ways to archive information are as endless as information itself and you shouldn’t be limited to only one method; it will vary depending on the goal for that information. These methods will not only change with the type of information, but will evolve over time.
Your archives should be flexible, growing as you find new ways to make a system of your own.
Suggestions:
Notion
Evernote
Roam Research
Memory Palaces
Paper Notebooks
For memory palaces, old information should be scrubbed using a burning method when no longer needed. For both analog and digital archives (except for the Zettelkasten), you should have periods of pruning information that is no longer relevant - once a quarter or twice per year.
If your goal requires you to capture large amounts of relevant information, consider implementing an “inbox” for whichever method you are using. As you gather, the medium in which information comes in is placed into the inbox for near-term organizaiton.
I am speaking a lot on storing tangible information, but remember, this is a flexible principle. If you don’t have a goal that involves heavy research into topics, you won’t need as complex of a system. This principle still applies even as you are processing information on a daily basis, if only to help you filter out and disregard vanity data.
Decide what archive method is appropriate for the information and use that one.
Memory Optimization
How you integrate your input, as mentioned above, depends on what type of information it is and what the goal is.
Memory Optimization is focused on encoding that information appropriately.
Spaced Repetition
Best for rote learning facts, words, figures, and concepts that must be recalled in the short-term as they are being stored in long-term memory. Spaced Repetition is based on extensive science and follows a Fibonacci-like sequence of time. Can be used effectively with a Memory Palace as well for beginners.
Active Recall
Used in conjunction with any method, this is the act of pulling the information out of your memory. It is often uncomfortable, especially when you have the information at hand. Do not skip this step, as it strengthens neural connections and cements information into your long-term memory.
Dual Coding
Dual coding describes the effect of using two forms of input when processing information. Recall the graphic on the Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Sketchpad, and Episodic Buffer. You will encode information faster and easier when using two forms of input - such as seeing a word while also reading it aloud. Using mind maps, diagrams, decision trees etc are great exercises.
Elaborative Interrogation
As you receive data, you must devise a way to interact with that data. Reading a book should not be a passive activity, it should be a conversation with the author. Write questions in the margins, keep a journal to translate the authors ideas into your own thoughts, as examples. Question statements, ask if they are true and why they are true (and when they are true?)
Just as previous points, which method you use will depend on the information and your goal. Experiment with different methods and find one that comes naturally to you, is fun, and gives the best result.
Side Note: In this week’s post for Founding Members, I will be posting a resource with 10+ different methods of encoding information.
Scheduled Seeding
For longer-term projects and goals, a period of looking ahead has profound effects on filtering information ahead of time.
Draw a roadmap of your planned path from start to finish, and identify milestones along the way that will take you to the next desired step. Within these milestones, brainstorm the different information you will need just-in-time, at that time. This will reduce the fomo of chasing information that is not currently relevant.
Focus on building foundations first, where your current level forms the base of a pyramid and becomes narrower as you progress. Building a house is a fractal picture of this process. You don’t wire the house for electric before you pour a foundation, install framing, lay down floors. You don’t learn Calculus before Algebra.
General knowledge is the same, and sometimes your lack of understanding of a subject is not a deficiency in IQ, but rather, of prerequisite knowledge.
A reframe you can use when you don’t understand something or are confused about a decision is “is there information that I could be missing that would bring clarity? Where would I find this information? Who do I know that could have this information?”
Just like the pyramid, each successive piece should build on the piece before.
Timely Application
Not only must information be relevant to you at this moment, but it should be applied at the correct moment.
You are now to the stage of the process where the success of each principle depends on how efficient the system is that you have designed.
For timely application, information must be accessible and you must know when the timing is correct (Scheduled Seeding). For information to be accessible, it must be stored properly. For it to be stored properly, the system must be like a well-oiled machine.
This can be as practical as finding your car keys. If your system dictates that whenever you return home, you hang them in the same spot, when you need them (Timely Application) they are retrieved without issue.
For student, this would look like recalling information as needed for an exam. Or, after graduation, applying that knowledge in real-world situations.
Get all of the other parts correct, and Timely Application will fall into place naturally.
Analog Segregation
There are periods where certain information is more relevant than at other times. This principle involves keeping priority information toward the top of the system, separated from an otherwise bulky archive.
You naturally do this when trying to remember a phone number, after just reading it and storing it in your working memory. You repeat it over and over to yourself, so that it is not lost before you dial.
Cheat sheets, indices, working memory, atomized ideas - all fall under this principle.
One reason that analog systems are superior to digital systems is the ability to immerse yourself in information. Ideas can be separated, spread out in front of you, and matched with other ideas.
Make sure your system has a method of prioritizing information. If you spend excess time searching either an analog system or your mind for an answer, your system needs to be improved.
Contextual Cross-Linking
This is where you being to draw associations between pieces of information, drawing a deeper understanding of paradigms and real-world application.
Linking can be as simple as the Method of Loci practice to remember a grocery list (or any information), or as complex as having a 90,000 note Zettelkasten.
Periods of consuming no information aid the mind in drawing associations, as it is free to roam and find patterns within information you are processing or have already processed.
The eureka moment of a new insight gives you a dopamine hit that make it extremely easy to encode the new idea into long-term memory.
Eureka, as its origin, is a flash of insight that is usually unexpected.
Any method of archive can achieve this purpose, but the important part here is that it is done somehow. If you are not regularly having “eureka” moments, it could be that your system is not optimized for this result - which indicates that one of the previous steps has been neglected.
Knowledge Munging
A computer science term, this final principle refers to the process of preparing raw data for analysis by transforming it into a more usable format.
This is the end prize of your thinking system - the grand finale.
This is when your knowledge is effectively processed, translated into your own thoughts and mode of thinking, and becomes actionable for use in the real world.
In essence, this final part is a culmination of the entire system above, the top of the pyramid.
The Smaller Picture is a form of Knowledge Munging for myself, as I used the medium to process and deliver my cumulative knowledge in an organized format for your reading enjoyment.
When you are successful at processing information, you should be able to distill it into a simpler form: summarize, reorganize, or translate. This is when the information becomes truly yours, not simply something you have memorized, but something that you understand and internalize.
At this step, you could translate a knowledge concept into a simple visual, explain it to a five year old, or write a poem about it.
The End Result
It turns out, the end result is not a result at all, but rather a continuation of the process.
As you begin to see that you can truly understand something, your desire should grow to understand things that before, you realize, you were just repeating.
Most people understand very little, and instead are walking repositories for facts they have had crammed in their schools during government education and social media indoctrination.
As true understanding grows, so do the “stacks” on which you place related information.
This process is how babies learn and become adults that manage their lives and contribute to society. This is what happens when you listen to someone speak (instead of just waiting to respond), process their ideas, and react genuinely. It is the concept behind Scott Adams’ Talent Stacking, outlined in his book How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big.
It is the underpinning of our entire material universe.
I invite you to reread this post in the near future, after you have had time to process the bigger picture. Then, revisit each principle individually, starting at the base of the pyramid, and work your way up week by week.
I hope you got some value out of this, and thanks for reading.
Oliver
P.S. What does your current system look like? In what way does it differ from the principles I shared above?
Let me know in the comments!