"10 Mental Models to Add to Your Thinking Toolbox."
=Psychology Thread=
A mental model explains someone's thought process about how something works in the real world.
They shape how we think and how we understand.
We need them to simplify the complexities and reason.
We can’t keep all of the details of the world in our brains, so we use mental models
The quality of our thinking is the quality of the models in our head
> The more models you have
> The bigger your toolbox
> The more likely you are to have the right ones in the right situation
Most of us are specialists, looking at the problem only one way:
• Engineers think in systems,
• Biologists think in terms of evolution,
• Psychologists think in terms of incentives…
But if you put these together, you can see a problem in 3 dimensional way.
“You can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head.”
- Charlie Munger
1. Inversion Mental Model
Rather than thinking about your desired outcome, consider the outcome you'd like to avoid.
"Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance."
2. Occam's Razor
The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
If you're trying to understand what happened, develop the most basic hypothesis possible.
3. Jealousy Tendency
There are two types of envy:
- The productive type is "inferiority"
- The unproductive type is “malicious envy”
One motivates you to raise yourself up to another person’s level.
One makes you take something valuable from someone else.
4. Backward Reasoning
This starts with a list of goals and works backward from the consequent to the antecedent.
It is known as the goal-driven technique because we start from the goal and reach the initial state to extract the facts.
5. Circle of Competence
When ego drives you, you have blind spots.
When you’re honest with yourself, you know where you’re vulnerable and where you can improve.
Understanding your circle of competence improves decision-making and outcomes.
6. Diminishing Returns
The incremental benefits you get from an investment get increasingly smaller.
The sooner you notice diminishing returns, the sooner you can jump on the projects that are more valuable to your business's growth.
7. Thought Experiment
When finding empirical evidence is impossible, we turn to thought experiments to understand complex concepts.
In doing so, you can open up new avenues for inquiry and exploration.
Thought experiments help us learn from our mistakes and avoid future ones.
8. Pareto Principle
Known as the 80/20 rule; most results aren't distributed equally.
• 20% of your traffic yields 80% of your leads
• 20% of the work generates 80% of the returns
• 20% of your time produces 80% of your results
9. Relativity
“If the earth is moving through space, how come I don’t notice?”
The answer is “Relativity”!
It can also show us the limits of our perception. And how we must be open to other perspectives if we truly want to understand the results of our actions.
10. Illusion of Control
The illusion of control is a bias that leads us to assume that we have complete control over the outcome of a situation in an instance where we do not.
Not everything in life is within our control.
Mental Models mentioned:
1. Inversion Mental Model 2. Occam's Razor 3. Jealousy Tendency 4. Backward Reasoning 5. Circle of Competence 6. Diminishing Returns 7. Thought Experiment 8. Pareto Principle 9. Relativity 10. Illusion of Control
Start reading "100 mental models"
With the help of books, cards, maps, quotes, audiobook,... will internalize mental models in your head in a way that you will use them automatically.
Elon Musk Recommends 5 Books That Changed His Life:
=Thread=
"I think Elon Musk is a genius, and I don't use that word lightly. I think he's also one of the boldest men that ever came down the pike." - Charlie Munger
Whenever anyone asks Elon Musk how he learned to build rockets, he says: "I read books."
1. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
This biography of Steve Jobs is based on Jobs' interviews and information collected from family and friends, and rivals over two years. The book was written at Jobs' request before he passed away in 2011.
"Where we realize that there is nothing new under the sun."
Beauty, love, immortality, knowledge, and justice are discussed in these dialogues, which magnificently express the glowing spirit of Platonic philosophy.
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
"An underrated masterpiece on dealing with human conflicts."
The Prophet provides timeless spiritual wisdom on various subjects, including giving, eating and drinking, laws, teaching, time, pleasure, religion, death, beauty, and friendship.