Thinking by writing/modeling as a way to maintain attention. ​

One of the non-obvious ways to maintain attention is to take notes and model. Notes allow you to quickly capture ideas (not to lose them, hold onto them indefinitely, on any scale). For example, you can write down an idea that you will implement in five years.

Models are a simplified description of a piece of the world - not the world in all its diversity, but only the important things in it that you have highlighted based on the purpose of the study and the role you play. For example, a meeting model does not describe the entire set of roles that each participant plays outside the meeting, nor does it detail their dissatisfaction, but only takes into account the roles that are important to achieve the goal of making decisions on the issues identified in the meeting agenda.

Notes and models are especially important for maintaining attention over lengthy time scales (from habituation onwards) and for successfully completing major projects that require the attention of multiple teams simultaneously. Models literally force you to highlight not everything, but only the important things, and the exocortex where they are stored allows you not to forget about them. The exocortex increases the available volume of attention over long time scales - and now we can hold in attention not only 7 +/- 2 objects but dozens and hundreds of objects without a loss of quality.

Thinking by writing/modeling also forces the agent (individual, team) to process information more deeply, engage the second signaling system S2. In everyday life, incoming information is often processed using S1, while S2 is "asleep" or half-asleep at the time (it may be partially engaged). The practice of thinking by writing/modeling makes S2 engage more strongly, carefully select incoming information, which will be selected as "building material" for notes and models, and process it more deeply. For example, sometimes employees try to use a manager as a "human ChatGPT / Google" and ask a question that they could answer themselves if they thought about it. However, they choose to ask because it is easier and (for them) cheaper. If a rule is introduced that an employee does not approach with a question immediately (except for genuinely urgent situations) but describes the situation and suggests solutions / demonstrates logic in reasoning, some questions will disappear at the stage of their formulation, and the remaining questions will be genuinely important. Additionally, this practice forces employees to learn to think, not just act with their hands attached to the manager's head.

The effect of involving S2 in the process of thinking by writing/modeling is so significant that in the HSE they even introduced a rule "no writing - no thinking." Important and interesting thoughts often begin to unfold in the mind or during a discussion; but these thoughts more often unfold, end, and lead to results when attention is maintained on them in written form. Ideas that remain only in the mind usually disappear quickly.

How writing thinking usually works: during communication or information consumption, an interesting thought comes to mind. It needs to be written down to not lose it, in some temporary storage, for example, in a personal to-do list planner, in the "Notes" app on the phone, or send it to yourself in an email. The idea is briefly recorded along with its context (how the idea came to mind), resulting in a fleeting note. To prevent fleeting notes from becoming dead weight in temporary storage, it is necessary to schedule standard time for reviewing notes and cleaning up storage.

During note review, interesting and valuable notes are evaluated, selected, those on which you want to continue focusing attention. Such notes go into permanent storage - a knowledge base^[1], or more specifically, a note base Zettelkasten or NoteBase^[2]. A note base is a personal creative environment where ideas fully unfold, connect with each other, forming a network of ideas. As a result of such connections, breakthrough ideas are born, which are then implemented in projects.

To successfully establish and maintain a personal creative environment, standard rules will need to be established for its management^[3], including standard note recording format (e.g., "idea" - "context / how the idea arose" - "information sources"). Creativity lies in the content of the notes, not in the format. It is very difficult to organize a well-connected base without using templates.

For modeling thinking, it is also advisable to have some standard approaches. This includes a standard exocortex - personal or collective (models are especially needed in collaborative projects), standard modeling methods, as well as knowledge of how to model, and what might be important in any project in general, that is, what meta-meta-models exist in relation to projects. Knowledge of modeling and models is precisely provided in HSE programs: in the course "Modeling and Collectiveness", the basics of modeling are studied, and in subsequent courses, for example, "Systems Thinking", what is "important" in projects, what needs attention, and how to ground this "important" in the reality of your projects are described.

For modeling thinking, it is advisable to establish a standard modeler (usually a project modeler), outline modeling methods, make such knowledge universally applicable (if it's about a company). It is also possible to simplify the preparation of necessary work products based on models: outline ways to gather "raw data" for filling the model, create a repository of previous work products, describe the process of obtaining the model (meta-model or algorithm), the goal, the purpose of such a work product^[4]. For example, instead of conducting market analysis from scratch each time, you can compile a description: when market data can be updated with new information, when trends need to be reassessed, and when it's time to update the meta-model of market analysis described in the regulations.