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The Incentives Lab
HBT-COG-0011 · Dimension COG · Cognition

Adaptability Quotient (AQ)

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Learning·Mental Model·Grade B·draft· enriching…

Scientific Definition

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Plain-English Definition

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Feynman Explanation

IQ gets you hired. EQ gets you promoted. AQ keeps you employed.

Core Principle

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Mechanisms

Psychological

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Economic

Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.

Neurological

Pending editorial review.

Evolutionary

Pending editorial review.

Sociological

Pending editorial review.

Computational

Pending editorial review.

Systems

Hiring and promotion criteria in fast-moving sectors.

Inputs (Triggers)

Pending editorial review.

Outputs (Behaviors)

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Signature

IQ gets you hired. EQ gets you promoted. AQ keeps you employed.

Examples

Everyday
  • Identified by XMBA as the leadership metric of the exponential era.
Modern (Organizational)
  • Hiring and promotion criteria in fast-moving sectors.
Historical

Pending editorial review.

Famous Experiments

Pending editorial review.

Design Principles

  • Measure how quickly people change behavior in response to new evidence.

Measurement Approaches

Pending editorial review.

Evidence

Evidence Grade
B (A strongest → E speculative)
Replication
★★★☆☆
Intervention Confidence
3 / 5
Consensus
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Limitations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Open Research Questions

Pending editorial review.

Primary References

Pending editorial review.

Signature Section

The Perverse Incentive Lens™

How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.

Exploitation
Hiring and promotion criteria in fast-moving sectors.
Amplifying Incentives
Hiring and promotion criteria in fast-moving sectors.
Org Failure Modes
Hiring and promotion criteria in fast-moving sectors.
Societal Failure Modes
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Ethical Considerations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Redesign Strategies
Measure how quickly people change behavior in response to new evidence.
Diagnostic Questions
  • Measure how quickly people change behavior in response to new evidence.
Warning Signs

Pending editorial review.

Red Flags

Pending editorial review.

Intervention Playbook
Individual
Measure how quickly people change behavior in response to new evidence.
Team
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Organization
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Policy
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
AI Implications
Detection
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Measurement
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Mitigation
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Responsible Use
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).

Interactive Mini Network

Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.

HBT-COG-0011 · COG
Adaptability Quotient (AQ)
AQAKAndragogy (Knowles)AAAttention as Trainab…BMBeginner's MindBEBizarreness EffectBTBloom's TaxonomyBMBlue Mind (Nichols)CPChange Personal Hist…ChChunkingCCChunking (Cognitive)COCircle of Excellence

Knowledge Graph Neighbors

Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.

Same family
HBT-COG-0037Andragogy (Knowles)

Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.

Same family
HBT-COG-0069Attention as Trainable Resource (Jha)

Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.

Same family
HBT-COG-0092Beginner's Mind

Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.

Same family
HBT-COG-0101Bizarreness Effect

Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.

Same family
HBT-COG-0103Bloom's Taxonomy

Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).

Same family
HBT-COG-0104Blue Mind (Nichols)

Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.

Same family
HBT-COG-0124Change Personal History

Resourcing past memories with the state you needed at the time, so old triggers stop firing the old response.

Same family
HBT-COG-0140Chunking

Grouping information into familiar units to improve memory and processing.

Same family
HBT-COG-0141Chunking (Cognitive)

Compressing many small patterns into one larger unit your mind treats as a single object.

Same family
HBT-COG-0147Circle of Excellence

Anchor a peak resourceful state to an imagined spot on the floor; step into it on demand before high-stakes moments.

Same family
HBT-COG-0150Classical Conditioning

Associating a neutral stimulus with a meaningful one until the neutral one triggers the response.

Same family
HBT-COG-0157Cognitive Load Theory

Working memory has limits.

Version History

v1.1.0 · 2026-06-28Initial auto-seed from corpus.