Scientific Definition
The ratio of useful information to irrelevant information.
Plain-English Definition
The ratio of useful information to irrelevant information.
Feynman Explanation
More data is not more insight. Often it is just more noise.
Core Principle
The ratio of useful information to irrelevant information.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
The ratio of useful information to irrelevant information.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Information overload reduces decision quality.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
More data is not more insight. Often it is just more noise.
Examples
- A dashboard with fifty metrics hides the three that matter.
- Information overload reduces decision quality.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Identify the few signals that matter and filter the rest.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Identify the few signals that matter and filter the rest.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Combine extreme safety with extreme risk; avoid the middle.
Game theory adjusted for how humans actually play — including fairness, reciprocity, and limited reasoning.
Allocating finite resources across many fronts when the opponent does the same — no dominant strategy exists.
Coordinated action that produces outcomes unavailable to individual actors.
Unconscious psychological strategies that protect self-image.
Designing organizations to ride doubling curves — AI, data, compute, biotech — rather than linear improvement.
Decisions depend on what other strategic actors will do.
Individual rationality produces collective irrationality.
Players choose how much to contribute to a shared pot; selfish theory predicts zero, real humans contribute, and punishment of free-riders sustains cooperation.
Responding in kind — favors for favors, harms for harms.
Decision-makers should bear the consequences of their decisions.
Much of human behavior is positioning for status.