Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models • Hacker News Board

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#71

Post by AnimalMuppet » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

yegg wrote: post #21

eswat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats on completing another book! Mental models seem to be a popular topic to write about in the last few years. As someone that has already devoured a lot of content about this, is there a good reason to pick up your book if I don't necessarily want to make the time to read more on the topic?

Thanks! Here are some reasons why I think it is worth picking up even if you've read a lot on mental models already: * The mental model community likes to quote Charlie Munger saying "80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly-wise person" and yet no one tries to systematically lists out all these models. This book attempts to do that. * We spent most of our time finding rel…

Actually, in the talk where Munger said that, he listed most of the 80 or 90. He didn't go into depth on any of them, but he listed them.

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#72

Post by manojlds » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 3:42 PM UTC

imglorp wrote: post #66

manojlds wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kindle says $5 for me.

Oh man we're being played by the AWS algorithm. This is what I see (not signed in, clean browser with no cookies). Kindle $14.99 Hardcover $19.60 Paperback $24.87

I am from India, maybe that plays into it.

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#73

Post by sctb » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

trpc wrote: post #41

Gabriel, stop using your minions to exploit HN. This is not like you pay some journalist or youtuber to attack google and then recommend your rudimentary search engine.

Please don't post like this in the threads. If you have concerns you can reach us directly at hn@ycombinator.com and we can do something if appropriate.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#74

Post by nestorherre » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:09 PM UTC

theNJR wrote: post #63

rmets wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is awesome, thanks. It would be cool to gamify these mental models in an app to help train. If this has been done or gets done, please post :)

Thats a really good idea. Even providing them as an Anki deck would be helpful.

disclaimer (not mine): https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/669613720

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#75

Post by pdgonzalez872 » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:09 PM UTC

got a copy. Look forward to it!

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#76

Post by harperlee » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

BadassFractal wrote: post #50

More of a meta comment than a criticism: there's been a real explosion in interest in mental models this last decade. Mental models have become top of mind in the SV community (and its associated thought leaders), from Farnham Street, Naval, Tim Ferriss, Patrick Collison and many others regularly talking about them and their creators such as Buffet / Munger / Kahneman etc. What's happening here? Is there some kind of…

My view on why they attract me: I’m technically inclined. Loved maths and physics during school and college, where one basic, but fundamentally powerful idea, enabled to solve so many problems. It seemed knowledge distilled. You just apply and combine and operate, and boom: The Right Answer.

Then picked a business book, where one idea is iterated for 100 pages. Looking it from different angles, explaining, examples, anecdotes. I’ll-tell-you-something-I’m-doing-it-I-told-you recursive sandwiches. “By the end of this book” nonsense. It seems facile, it does not demand pencil-and-paper work like in maths. Also, one idea per book? Wasted time.

Finally a book comes that just lists ideas. Not very detailed. Seem very fundamental. It reminds a little bit of a maths cheatsheet, the minimal expression of the Maxwell equations that will solve all business issues. It sounds exciting!

But as others noted: if you cannot work them, exercise them, and think formally through implications, it is cargo culting from maths. At least to an extent.

(Sorry for the style im in my mobile)

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#77

Post by tquinn » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

BadassFractal wrote: post #50

More of a meta comment than a criticism: there's been a real explosion in interest in mental models this last decade. Mental models have become top of mind in the SV community (and its associated thought leaders), from Farnham Street, Naval, Tim Ferriss, Patrick Collison and many others regularly talking about them and their creators such as Buffet / Munger / Kahneman etc. What's happening here? Is there some kind of…

The world isn't going to fit perfectly into mental models, it's much more complex, variable, and random. "The Bed of Procrustes" comes to mind: The mythical innkeeper that wanted his guests to fit perfectly into their bed, so he would either stretch the guests or chop off limbs to make them fit.

IMO the maps don't always match the terrain, but the maps are worth studying.

I'm going to buy the book as I found Traction super useful, and I'd like to see their take on popular mental models. But I'm keeping in mind the limits of models. (I like a good dose of Nassim Nicholas Taleb for this)

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#78

Post by gumby » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 5:27 PM UTC

Looks great and I can't wait to read it!

Another good book in this area, more focused on math perhaps (haven't read "Super thinking" yet) is George Polya's classic "How to Solve it".

A short book I found super handy and have re read a few times.

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#79

Post by soulofmischief » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 5:36 PM UTC

yegg wrote: post #2

A few years ago I published a large list of mental models I find repeatedly useful ( https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-use... ), discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12040707 . I've spent my spare time since (day job is running DuckDuckGo) with my co-author (statistician, researcher, and wife!) turning that list into this book, which weaves the 300+ mental models into nine narrativ…

I come back to your article often; a narrative-driven book sounds perfect. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

If I have any questions or feedback while reading and want to reach out, which contact method would you prefer? I only see Signal on your page and I wouldn't want to be rude if that is a personal number.

Re: Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

#80

Post by reddickulous » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

Just bought it. Anybody that can build a successful search engine on perl probably has something useful to say. :)

If you want to increase sales you should get some reviews up there on Amazon. If you have a mailing list you can offer a limited number of free private ebooks to beta readers and encourage recipients to leave an honest review. That's standard practice on Amazon. The only stipulation is the review has to be voluntary and honest. Ideally you'd already have that in place on launch day but it's not too late.