Mental Model Monday and other tools for thinking.
Using models to understand the world and make decisions is a good idea. It’s a method used by brilliant decisionmakers around the world. Charlie Mungeris a big supporter of it, and he takes the idea one step further by saying…
Recently I started consuming digital books. And by “recently” and “consuming” I mean I’m half way through my first book. It’s called Atomic Habits and I recommend it. I love spontaneity, and I’ve never been good at habits. But I…
I went on golf tour in Durban this week and it was quite the spectacle of both golf and drinking. I’m going on a detox this week to clear out the systems. Sometimes hitting refresh is the best thing for…
This is a mental model I haven’t started yet. I bought a book about it yesterday, called the “The Decision Checklist”, and the first three chapters were good. My wife and I tried it, albeit not journaling but using the…
I saw a bit of a condescending post on twitter today, which despite its tone, delivered a powerful message. The picture that sums up the idea is below, and the gist of the tweet below that. 8/ There are…
I’m a big fan of how the Heath brothers distilled marketing down into several easy to understand steps in their famous book “Made to Stick”. Their acronym – SUCCESs – stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story. According to…
This is another good one from that legendary pipe-smoking detective. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes often employed this technique and lamented that more people don’t employ it. The basic idea is that you start with the result you want, and…
I’ve been reading “A Few Lessons From Sherlock Holmes” by Peter Bevellin and it’s stimulated some great thinking about mental models and critical thinking. Observation, in particular, is highlighted by Bevellin as one of Holmes’ best attributes. There’s one section…
This model is pretty freaking cool. I think about it in terms of blockers at the partnership I manage. If I do everything right with the organization, but there’s one powerful person who doesn’t support the project, all the work…
Travel is not a mental model, but the results and experiences one receives through travel are often invaluable. I’ve lived most of my life as an expat now, and I still make it a point every year to travel somewhere…
Lately I’ve considered what it is I want in my career. The answer is getting to a technical role. That means either in product or engineering. Right now, I’ve been in a fantastic sales/management role for the past three years. …
I’ve picked up surfing this winter in Cape Town. The number of times I’ve could count the number of times I battered around and swallowed sea water has long since past. 72 hours is the amount of time I want…