What is relationship-first thinking?

Relationship-first thinking is a concept in personal epistemology: Relationships between ideas deserve as much attention as the ideas themselves.

Example: You have a note about 'spaced repetition' and a note about 'habit formation.' The link between them — that spaced repetition works because it exploits the same neural pathways as habit formation — is not a filing convenience. It is a standalone piece of knowledge. If you delete the link, you lose an insight that neither note contains on its own.

This concept is part of Phase 18 (Knowledge Graphs) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for knowledge graphs.