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Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of how humans (and animals and, in some cases, computers) process information. Traditionally, cognitive psychologists have made a distinction among different areas of study: memory, attention, categorization, language acquisition and use, decision-making, and one or two other topics. Many believe that attention and memory are closely related, that you can't remember things that you didn't pay attention to in the first place. There has been relatively less attention paid to the important interrelationship among categorization, attention, and memory.

Why is it that when you think of hash browns, your brain doesn't automatically deliver up every single time you've ever had hash browns? It's because the brain organizes similar memories into categorical bundles.

Our brains come preconfigured to create categories and classifications of things automatically and without our conscious intervention.

We make a pile of nearly fifty cards proposing changes to the Rainbow, Saturn, and Taser applications, and also changes to the network and certain shared databases, which could impact a significant portion, or even all, of the business. "Even looking at those cards makes my heart palpitate," Wes says. "These are some of the dangerous changes we make around here." He's right. I say, "Okay, let's mark all of these as 'fragile.' These are high risk and must be authorized by the cab. Patty, changes like this should be at the top of the pile during our meetings." Patty nods, taking notes saying, "Got it. We're predefining high-risk categories of change that not only must have change requests submitted, but must have authorization before being scheduled and implemented."

Successful people are expert at categorizing useful versus distracting knowledge.