81–90 of 98 posts
If you haven't seen it, this is one of the best resources on the subject: https://fs.blog/mental-models/ Farnham Street blog has a TON of fascinating articles.
I’ve been thinking I wish someone would write a mental model oriented book converting the models for git, react/frp, OO, prototypical OO, Kubernetes, blockchain, DB indexes, peer to peer networking and whatever else. Maybe each chapter is a different author. I think mental model first learning would be a lot faster. Each git command can be explained in the mental model rather than as a stand-alone thing. You could pr…
I kinda understand what you are saying, but not fully. Do you have an example of such article (or video) on one of the topics you listed?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
True there are billions of concepts but if you think about it, a few concepts explain a ton of things. For e.g., incentives. A simple concept in theory but apply the right incentives if you are leading teams and you'll see a whole lot of improvements. And that's the beauty of mental models. You don't want billions of them. Maybe 20-30 of them have enough applicability for most of the things that you might want to cha…
Yes, I agree logical concepts can be abstracted into generic core concepts. Like how the concept of "picking up a coffee cup" can be abstracted into the more generic core concept of "picking up an object" which can be applied more broadly. But that's more about logical reasoning than it is about mental models. A mental model is how the brain understands a logical concept. There's also a danger with it becoming counte…
For this reason I find the OP’s follow-up somewhat—misguided? Seems like he needs to pick a topic and do some research. Unless we’re just talking about our favorite books, which is basically what the thread has become. And I love it.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows Once you start looking for positive and negative feedback loops in the world around you, it's hard to stop. In particular, Meadow's book is great because it also goes beyond +/- loops in isolation, and shows more complicated patterns, such as eroding goal patterns and traps that often cause public policy interventions to fail.
+1 I just recently read this book and i was met with gem after gem. Also made me start looking at the world in terms of feedback loops, is it a balancing, goal-seeking or reinforcing feedback loop? How tight are these feedback loops? etc. Definitely a must read!
Thinking Fast and Slow is another great book that explains some of the mental models well.
The Art of Thinking Clearly is yet another that is actually more like a dictionary of mental models.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I agree logical concepts can be abstracted into generic core concepts. Like how the concept of "picking up a coffee cup" can be abstracted into the more generic core concept of "picking up an object" which can be applied more broadly. But that's more about logical reasoning than it is about mental models. A mental model is how the brain understands a logical concept. There's also a danger with it becoming counte…
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk describes ‘ideology’ as a personal idea of how the world _really_ works. You could call that a mental model. However, when I think specifically about the subject ‘mental models’ I return to the concept I learned about first in the Coursera course Model Thinking by Scott E. Page (University of Michigan). He teaches a survey of many different models. For example, there is the Threshold…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk describes ‘ideology’ as a personal idea of how the world _really_ works. You could call that a mental model. However, when I think specifically about the subject ‘mental models’ I return to the concept I learned about first in the Coursera course Model Thinking by Scott E. Page (University of Michigan). He teaches a survey of many different models. For example, there is the Threshold…
Just reading through comments to aggregate notes, and as the OP, yep: I meant something closer to "favorite books" but with the condition that they happen to introduce, by intention or unintentionally, a (single) "mental model" (not to be too strict about the definition) or perspective of sorts. I realize now my original question was not that clear, sorry about that!
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows Once you start looking for positive and negative feedback loops in the world around you, it's hard to stop. In particular, Meadow's book is great because it also goes beyond +/- loops in isolation, and shows more complicated patterns, such as eroding goal patterns and traps that often cause public policy interventions to fail.
> Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.
That’s sad
# Intuition Pump and other tools for thinking by Daniel Dennett # Books edited by John Brockman - 1) This Explains Everything, 2) This Idea is Brilliant, 3) This Will Make You Smarter, 4) Thinking # Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman Also second the recommendation of other books based on Charlie Munger's wisdom and farnam street's reading list.
To that, I would add Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstader & Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. (Wilson gets a little hippieish, but he does a better job of knocking down unjustified tunnel-vision than Hofstader or Dennett do.)
There are many good recommendations here, but I’d add that reading books about mental models is worth 10%, while practice thinking about real situations is 90%. To get practice, you can’t just sit and scratch your chin. You have to make a predction, write it down, then see how real life played out a few years down the road. It helps to write down predictions you considered but rejected and why.
That sounds like quite possibly the least effective method of learning. There are people out there who have done all that work for you. All you have to do is pick up a book, learn their models, then stand on their shoulders as you develop your own.