The table below gives a summary view of 7 basis concepts as columns with operational verbs, roles and different anchors arranged by rows. Click on any axis for a quick jump to its more detailed essay. This template maps each axis to a pre-configured top-level folder structure with root notes¹ and custom CSS snippet to add Obsidian vault some aesthetics.

V (Vit)	A (Apl)	C (Com)	U (Und)	I (Inv)	T (Tem)	Y (Yld)
Explora∫n	Defini∫n	Negotia∫n	Specifica∫n	Genera∫n	Revela∫n	Integra∫n
observe, gather, survey,	structure, anchor, tune,	discuss, trade, influence,	process, filtrate, classify,	model, iterate, prototype,	visualise, reframe, analyse,	condense, stabilise, ground,
Pioneer	Composer	Mediator	Archivist	Innovator	Engraver	Farmer
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
💥 Sun σ (sigma)	🎵 Moon ν (nu)	♨️ Fire θ (theta)	🌀 Water γ (gamma)	🌿 Wood α (alpha)	⚡ Metal φ (phi)	⏳ Earth ζ (zeta)
日 orange	月 violet	火 red	水 blue	木 green	金 yellow	土 brown
F47933	9A69AD	E42F44	056AB5	278A46	FFC220	9A734A
Axis[0]	Axis[1]	Axis[2]	Axis[3]	Axis[4]	Axis[5]	Axis[6]

Project VACUITY 🎲

A 7-axis role-playing game (RPG) system with cognitive basis for structured thinking

This project best described with a selection of specific perspectives:

• For creative time-management: "A mental RPG system - stats and mechanics to gamify daily life problem-solving."
  • Example α: CV-generator and personal webpage == Using this basis I've divided relevant information into 7 files (YAML, TOML, MD) to automatically build personal website and generate custom CVs with various templates
  • Example β: == To be revealed.
• For scientific research: "A functional vector space of cognition: 7 basis dimensions to decompose stages of a complex research workflow into actionable primitives."
  • Example A: "Git Expeditions" .metadata folder structure == Sometimes personal philosophical studies like this one, may deeply influence professional development - let's say give a backbone of structure for another template
  • Example B: "PhD.src" - keep commits flowing, save your thesis from chaos == To be revealed.
• For philosophers - contribute with to make your unique application case

Foreword

Where can I use this RPG system? 🎮

The VACUITY RPG system is designed to be a foundational layer for structuring thought and action. I primarily use it as a narrative framework for gamified cognition. Each axis has a role / archetype baked in with an attribute that can be widely applicable. The elegance here lies in blending of intuitive graspable archetypes with potential for AI layer computational primitives. Here are some examples how you can use it right now!

• In Personal Productivity: Transform your daily to-do list into a quest log. Instead of "write report," you embark on a Generation quest to prototype a draft, followed by a Revelation quest to analyse and refine it. Your Cognitive Load (CL) is your stamina bar.
• In Creative Writing & Worldbuilding: Use the axes as a character development tool. A character's stats (Vit, Apl, Com, etc.) dictate how they approach problems. A high-Inv, low-Tem character might be a brilliant but reckless inventor, prone to over-grown idea sprawl.
• In AI Agent Architecture: This is perhaps the most potent future application. Each axis can define a specialized module or "cognitive primitive" for an AI. The RPG attributes (Vit, Apl, etc.) can be adjustable parameters that govern the agent's behaviour, creating a transparent and interpretable architecture for complex reasoning. Most importantly it can inspire you to maybe invent a better system or at least step on the path to structure you own human thoughts! At least for me it was game-changing in terms of productivity:)

What is a cognitive basis? 💭

First of all - regarding terminology used, let's set the core declaration here. The phrase 'cognitive basis' is not a standard expression in neurobiology or psychology domains, but in my opinion one can construct a meaningful explanation by combining concepts from both cognitive science and linear algebra.

Primary declaration: Cognitive Basis - 'a set of orthogonal, interpretable dimensions linearly decomposing cognitive processes’

Alternative wording: a 'cognitive basis' can be understood as a set of fundamental cognitive structures or processes that serve as the building blocks for more complex cognitive functions. Just as a basis in linear algebra provides a set of vectors that can span a vector space, a cognitive basis provides a set of basic cognitive elements that can be combined to explain a wide range of cognitive phenomena.

For this specific cognitive basis each axis/dimension:

• Encodes a primitive cognitive function with short description and operational verbs
• Maps into implementable activities and examples like scientific research stages and RPG stats for gamification of daily life
• Limits symbolism to metaphors and archetypical links only (no pseudo-science!)

Why 7-axis?

There are 7 days of week - near-universal cultural artifact rooted in the naked-eye observation of celestial bodies. Aside of that, this number has scientifically sound reasons - one of the most cited articles in psychology² ironically plays with it's "magical" nature rooted in our human capacity for processing information.

How to use this repository?

On a practical note, the repo has two main goals:

• (A) introduce development of a particular framework for structured thinking to the community
• (B) serve as a template for a Knowledge Management System in the form of Obsidian Vault

Tip

If you just want to have an Obsidian vault set up and running

1. Download this repo as zip
2. Unpack it where you want your vault to be located
3. Run Obsidian

• If you have another vault already open -> click Manage vaults...

4. Open folder as vault -> navigate to the location of unzipped repo
5. Use this cognitive basis to structure your notes or adjust it to your taste!

Note

If you using GitHub (for syncing your vault) 6. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository 7. Above the file list, click Use this template 8. Select Create a new repository 9. Choose the right Owner and Visibility (ex. personal private) 10. Type your repository name and add an optional description 11. Create repository from template 12. Use your fresh repository the way you want it (open as Obsidian vault)!

RPG Stats System

vitality

Physical/mental stamina for discovery

aplomb

Grace under pressure, disciplined focus

compassion

Assertiveness and transparency in communication

understanding

Factual erudition, intellectual precision of knowledge

inventiveness

Creative problem-solving, diverse originality

temperance

Balanced skepticism and openness when detecting patterns

yielding

Patience to let insights mature without premature synthesis

The Cognitive Basis

exploration

The proactive engagement with the unknown to map possibilities

• Operational verbs = observe, gather, survey
• Role = The Pioneer scouts uncharted territory revealing terrain and resources - bridging the age-old figure of the cartographer with the modern reality of data ingestion and corpus creation.
• Metaphor = Just as Sun fuses atoms to flood its system with light, Exploration requires increasing entropy deliberately to gather raw stimuli from the environment - be it through literature review, dataset foraging, or fieldwork.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • σ ≡ entropy → necessary disorder for discovery
  • σ ↑↑ ≡ entropic diffusion → information hoarding (white noise catastrophe)
  • σ ↓↓ ≡ entropic collapse → stagnation in local optima (laser fixation)
• Day = Sunday (日曜日) as "chaos day" - dedicated to:
  • observing: in-situ recording (field notes)
  • gathering: unfiltered collecting (quick search)
  • surveying: landscape mapping (feature records)
• Research/development examples:
  • Data acquisition, broad literature surveying before topic emergence
  • Web-scraping, Monte Carlo methods for parameter space sampling
• Daily life activities:
  • "Field Journal" = sketching unexpected observations during commutes in paper notebook
  • "Serendipity Walks" = urban or countryside explorations with no predetermined route
• RPG attribute = vitality (Vit)

definition

The sustained effort to anchor chaos with resonant structures

• Operational verbs = structure, anchor, tune
• Role = The Composer arranging elements into harmonic systems to tune processes - mirroring a symphony’s score or a lunisolar calendar.
• Metaphor = Just as Moon pulls the oceans into rhythmic tides, Definition requires repetitive regimentation to invoke powerful feedback loops - whether in code architecture, research protocols, or daily rituals.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • ν ≡ frequency → bandwidth of coherent execution
  • ν ↑↑ ≡ over-tuned → brittle systems (squeaky schedules)
  • ν ↓↓ ≡ under-toned → unregular efforts (bass dissonance)
• Day = Monday (月曜日) as "tide day" - focused on:
  • structuring: inventing modular frameworks (templates, protocols)
  • anchoring: establishing invariants (API versioning)
  • tuning: micro-adjusting cadences (scheduling meeting durations)
• Research/development examples:
  • Arranging time and efforts, enforcing protocols, journaling progress
  • Version control, commits regularity, CI/CD pipelines with resonating intervals
• Daily life activities:
  • "Tidal Audits" = journaling and regular review of personal/system rhythms
  • "Year/Month/Week Mapping" = aligning tasks with different scale time-frames
• RPG attribute = aplomb (Apl)

negotiation

The dynamic balancing of competing inputs through collaborative tension

• Operational verbs = discuss, trade, influence
• Role = The Mediator facilitates energy exchange to obtain equilibrium compromise - bridging United-Nations mediators (human) and Reinforced Learning reward-shaping algorithms (AI).
• Metaphor = Just as Fire transforms fuel into controlled warmth, Negotiation requires precise temperature scaling to transform conflicts into collaboration - whether in team debates, stakeholder tradeoffs, or tuning a neural network's loss function.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • θ ≡ temperature → heat exchange rate in interactions
  • θ ↑↑ ≡ over-heated → endless debate (thermal runaway)
  • θ ↓↓ ≡ frozen → groupthink (local equilibrium)
• Day = Tuesday (火曜日) as "equilibrium day" - focused on:
  • discussing: active listening drills ("what I heard you say...")
  • trading: win-win scenario mapping ("if it is X, then they Y")
  • influencing: nonviolent communication in persuasion experiments
• Research/development examples:
  • Peer review rebuttals with conflict resolution frameworks
  • Hyperparameter tuning (balancing precision/recall tradeoffs)
• Daily life activities:
  • "Equilibrium Sprints" = team alignment in mediator-leaded session
  • "Trade-off Journal" = documenting compromise outcomes and lessons
• RPG attribute = compassion (Com)

specification

The precise reduction of ambiguity into actionable representations

• Operational verbs = process, filter, classify
• Role = The Librarian compresses information to diamond-clear essence - mirroring intellectual erudition and precise focus akin to a data scientist cleaning datasets or debugging.
• Metaphor = Just as Water coalesces into droplets through surface tension, Specification requires applying precise constraints to form ambiguous complexity into essential forms - be it a pruned dataset, debugged code, or a clear taxonomy.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • γ ≡ surface tension → information boundary strength
  • γ ↑↑ ≡ over-constrained → sterile hyper-focus (brittle filming)
  • γ ↓↓ ≡ unbounded → noise sprawl (ruptured droplets)
• Day = Wednesday (水曜日) as "distillation day" - focused on:
  • processing: systematic manipulations with data and metadata
  • filtering: pruning ambiguity in code, documentation and writing
  • classifying: building hierarchical ontologies (literature tagging)
• Research/development examples:
  • Methodological rigor checks, instrument calibration, citation chain tracing
  • Debugging pipelines (unit test coverage), feature selection for ML models
• Daily life activities:
  • "Vault Pruning" = weekly notes cleanup (ex. dead-links removal)
  • "Taxonomy Sprints" = sessions to classify pending items (emails, tasks)
• RPG attribute = understanding (Und)

generation

The iterative construction of novel solutions through systematic recombination

• Operational verbs = model, iterate, prototype
• Role = The Innovator diverges branches of possibility and stimulates growth - bridging nature’s recombinant strategies (pollination, meiosis) and generative adversarial networks.
• Metaphor = Just as Wood branches and grows to explore its space, Generation requires applying action across paths to permute novel solutions - whether hypotheses, designs, or workflows.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • α ≡ action → work expended to traverse solution-space trajectories
  • α ↑↑ ≡ over-grown → idea sprawl (divergent paths)
  • α ↓↓ ≡ under-branched → derivative work (shortcutting)
• Day = Thursday (木曜日) as "propagation day" - peak momentum for:
  • modeling: creating conceptual wireframes (simulations or whiteboard diagrams)
  • iterating: brainstorming variants of a core idea (cognitive commits)
  • prototyping: building "minimum viable tests" (quick Python script)
• Research/development examples:
  • Reproducible automation, paper results drafting
  • Automated idea expansion using LLM prompt chaining
• Daily life activities:
  • "Sketch-storming" = short-sessions of doodling a problem
  • "Morpho-Grid" = putting problem attributes into matrix form

• RPG attribute = inventiveness (Inv)

revelation

The emergent recognition of undiscovered through analysis and perspective shifts

• Operational verbs = visualise, reframe, analyse
• Role = The Engraver exposes hidden connection by carving new perspectives - linking art with engineering and science (etching in semiconductor industry).
• Metaphor = Just as Metal is refined to unveil a sharp edge of utility, Revelation requires iterative polishing perspective to uncover hidden patterns of significance - whether in a high-quality figure or a fine-tuned attention map.
• Physics anchoring (over/under risks):
  • φ ≡ voltage → pattern potential gradient
  • φ ↑↑ ≡ over-charged → false patterns (arcing noise)
  • φ ↓↓ ≡ under-volted → missed discoveries (flatlining)
• Day = Friday (金曜日) as "polishing day" - dedicated to:
  • visualising: crafting clear data representations
  • reframing: testing inverted hypotheses ("What if the null is true?")
  • analysing: methodical validation (sensitivity tests)
• Research/development examples:
  • Applying statistical filters to isolate significant variables
  • Debugging ML models via activation pattern visualisation
• Daily life activities:
  • "Negative Space Exercise" = spend some time sketching only the gaps in a problem
  • "Error Ledger" = document and validate judgment to check for cognitive biases
• RPG attribute = temperance (Tem)

integration

The synthesis of knowledge into cohesive outputs through strategic patience

• Operational verbs = compose, stabilise, ground
• Role = The Farmer grounds the mind at rest and harvests knowledge yield - mirroring crop rotation's idle fields with active cultivation to sustain a long-term productivity.
• Metaphor = Just as Earth patiently consolidating scattered elements into fertile soil, Integration requires tactical pause to gather fragmented insights and synthesise them in a stable cohesive form - whether papers, repositories, or knowledge bases.
• Physics Anchoring (over/under risks):
  • ζ ≡ impedance → adaptive cognitive load to transfer knowledge
  • ζ ↑↑ ≡ over-loaded → rigid integration (mismatched ports)
  • ζ ↓↓ ≡ under-loaded → disjointed unrefined outputs (leaky lines)
• Day = Saturday (土曜日) as "fallow day" - a strategic rest to:
  • composing: natural non-forced synthesis and knowledge integration
  • stabilising: mental energy recovery (like soil rebuilding nutrients)
  • grounding: cosy leisure activities (fiction literature, video-games, movies)
• Research/development examples:
  • Final manuscript polishing with "fresh eyes" after a rest period
  • Building a reproducible pipeline (like Docker containers for peer replication)
• Daily life activities:
  • "Weekly Ritual" = light notes cultivation (reading, tagging, no writing)
  • "Analog Grounding" = nature walks, sketching by hand, musical instrument
• RPG attribute = yielding (Yld)

Symbolism

The whole project is very much an attempt of philosophical reflection, so it should be taken with a grain of rational salt. Some argumentation may be rather subjective - constructive criticism is very welcomed in GitHub Discussions!

Caution

Disclaimer

Professional employment at scientific research institutes and programming/engineering experience shaped me to reject any smell of pseudo-science. Thus, a more objective part presented above should be considered the cognitive basis core. Symbolism presented in the section below is a particularly tricky part as it contains much more subjective view dictated by my innate passion for learning languages and cultures outside my native one. Being a significant part of my personal cognition, it obviously affected development of this basis. However, it should be viewed as a supplementary information - useful to better understand minor reasoning factors, but avoiding unnecessary overreaching.

日 Sun 💥 (#F47933)

• Kanji = 日 (hi / nichi) → Sunday
• Element = Sun → low-entropy pump as a source driving exploration
• Icon/emoji = 💥 → intentional entropy increase, light of Exploration
• Colour RGB = (244,121,051) ← Faber-Castell №115: dark cadmium orange
  • First synthetic pigment replacing toxic mercury-based vermilion
  • Used in heatmaps for high-entropy zones (raw data histograms)
  • In Shinto, represents Amaterasu's life-giving chaos

月 Moon 🎵 (#9A69AD)

• Kanji = 月 (tsuki / getsu) → Monday
• Element = Moon → gravitational structuring of time/processes
• Icon/emoji = 🎵 → lunar rhythmic dominance, music of Definition
• Colour = (154,105,173) ← Faber-Castell pencil №160: manganese violet
  • An aniline dye derivative synthetic pigment replacing costly natural one
  • Used in NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maps
  • Historically considered royal or imperial in the West, authority in modern UX design

火 Fire ♨️ (#E42F44)

• Kanji = 火 (ho / ka) → Tuesday
• Element = Fire → dual nature of warmth (collaboration) and destruction (conflict)
• Icon/emoji = ♨️ → ideas transformation, heat of Negotiation
• Colour RGB = (228,047,068) ← Faber-Castell №223: deep red
  • Mimics iron oxide pigment in hot-spring sediments
  • First colour infants perceive and the most cross-culturally salient (blood, danger, love)
  • Used historically in Japanese hanko seals (binding agreements)

水 Water 🌀 (#056AB5)

• Kanji = 水 (sui / mizu) → Wednesday
• Element = Water → adaptive yet boundary-respecting (takes container shape)
• Icon/emoji = 🌀 → water wears away stone, vortex of Specification
• Colour RGB = (005,106,181) ← Faber-Castell №143: cobalt blue
  • Co + SiO2 smalt (Renaissance Europe’s cheap ultramarine)
  • Sky’s colour due to Rayleigh scattering is why we evolved trichromatic vision
  • Globally "favorite" colour, associated with trust which is exploited by corporate logos

木 Wood 🌿 (#278A46)

• Kanji = 木 (moku / ki) → Thursday
• Element = Wood → divergent branches and roots
• Icon/emoji = 🌿 → sustained organic growth, leaf of Generation
• Colour RGB = (039,138,070) ← Faber-Castell №266: permanent green
  • Botanical illustration pigment (used by Darwin for species sketches)
  • Avoids "toxic green" clichés - muted yet fertile
  • In Islam, green is sacred; in Western traffic lights, it’s "go

金 Metal ⚡ (#FFC220)

• Kanji = 金 (kin / kane) → Friday
• Element = Metal → hardness and conductivity enables fine-tuning
• Icon/emoji = ⚡ → spark of insight, thunderbolt of Revelation
• Colour RGB = (255,194,032) ← Faber-Castell №108: dark cadmium yellow
  • CdS + ZnS yellows are opaque and fiery (Van Gogh’s sunflowers incarnate)
  • High luminance efficiency - reason why taxis and warning signs use it
  • In China, yellow was imperial, in the West - optimism and psychiatry (apophenia)

土 Earth ⏳ (#9A734A)

• Kanji = 土 (tou / tsuchi) → Saturday
• Element = Earth → static, receptive nature embodies passive synthesis
• Icon/emoji = ⌛ → strategic turn, sand flow of Integration
• Colour RGB = (154,115,074) ← Faber-Сastell №180: raw umber
  • Umber was used for Renaissance underpainting (foundational / integrated layer)
  • Restful, muted, grounded tone evokes archival durability and patience
  • Celebrates imperfection and weathering (Wabi-Sabi) - knowledge matures with rest

Motivation

Note

Foreword from the initial draft human author (Sergei Abramenkov, PhD)

Various math courses I had to take during university education did not get stuck in my head as fully and clearly as I would prefer. Still, I was really affected by a single simple idea presented throughout the major part of mathematics. To me it became the most important principle way beyond math itself - it formed my outlook on any complex problem in general. Underlying concept for this principle/idea is called basis and that is exactly as it presented in linear algebra: a set of axis in a vector space that allows its elements to be written as a finite linear combination of these axis unit vectors.

The root philosophical idea of making a personal cognitive basis had sparked during the second year of my postgraduate studies (late 2016). After years of struggling I somehow extracted it into the digital form and drafted 7 primary axis for my personal cognitive basis. Essentially I iteratively sorted and resorted out key actions, directions and dimensions of day to day life experience, then arranged it on a foundation of physics metaphors and linear algebra concepts. While I tried my best to keep the obtained cognitive basis vectors rather universal - this whole system is still very much subjective. Finally (only recently), I discovered that a Large Language Model (LLM) may help immensely with the daunting task of organising raw thoughts formed by human natural intelligence into concise and beautiful form. So together with DeepSeek-V3³ we have co-designed an updated and much more coherent system presented here.

Contribute

Tip

Since it is a GitHub template repo you can just use it to create your own fresh repository with a single commit history and all existing folder structure and few files like this README. However if you want to contribute you are welcome to fork, make a branch and pull-request as usual, since it is still a GitHub repo after all. I intend to make few branches that for example include specific Obsidian files like a custom css-theme.

If you found any ideas in this project worthy - do not hesitate, let me know what resonated! If you have decent confidence of what can be added/removed/modified - feel free to contribute to the template (but make sure to create a new branch before pull-request)!

Useful links / further reading🔗

• Google Slides - I'm working on updating it but the core editing is done in this repository with Obsidian.

• Video of my talk titled "Co-designing with LLM: a personalised cognitive engine architecture" presented @ Data Fest 2025. The talk was given in English with rather decent grammar and vocabulary but I failed to deliver "The Why?" to the audience and overall flow was not very good. Also, slides in the talk are slightly outdated but the core essence remains the same.

• Seven Dimensions - a video-essay by Kieran Borovac on YouTube that I highly recommend to get a reason behind anchoring cognitive axis to physical dimensions.

• Complete list of github markdown emoji markup - useful everyday reference to have.

• Kotseruba, I., & Tsotsos, J. K. (2020) 40 years of cognitive architectures: core cognitive abilities and practical applications. Artificial Intelligence Review, 53 (1): 17-94. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.08602

• Grundspenkis, J. (2007) Agent based approach for organization and personal knowledge modelling: knowledge management perspective. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 18 (4): 451–457 DOI:10.1007/s10845-007-0052-6

Footnotes

1. I also recommend using Lost Paul's 'Folder notes' (https://github.com/LostPaul/obsidian-folder-notes/) plugin with this template. ↩

2. Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review. 63 (2): 81–97. DOI:10.1037/h0043158 ↩

3. DeepSeek Chat, 2024 - Conversations on Cognitive Engine Framework. ↩