Category Mental Models

Habits are not really a mental model, and I’ve never been great at building good habits.  Spontaneity is important to me.  But many successful people swear by their habits.  As I get older I’ve started seeing the value in them.  The…

Excel is not a mental model, its a program.  Watch the video below to get a good idea of how to excel.  You’ll be more valuable because of it.

Most people in the world probably think they’ve been more often on the wrong side of leverage.  I count myself in that category.  The most painful was when I was pushed out of a company without my equity.  I only…

When I played rugby at University, I started for the first team my freshman year.  Growing up with the sport in Zimbabwe had blessed me with an intuitive understanding of the game, from movement off the ball, to defense, to…

Ray Dalio’s book is legit.  It’s crystalizing a lot of the work I’ve read on mental models, while also putting down some great insight into execution.  One key takeaway for me right now is his five step process to achieving your…

This isn’t really a mental model, more of a mindset.  But I include it as a mental model because you can use it as an instant or deferred model against the world.  If you’ve read a book, you’ve accessed knowledge…

Last week I took four days off work and went on a five-day hike along the coast of South Africa.  We carried all our own supplies.  It was a beautiful experience, refreshing the mind, rejuvenating the soul and purifying the…

This is another one of those models no one pays attention to because it isn’t apparent.  But once it is apparent it kicks ass.  This model applies at scale, not as it scales.  The idea is that when a system…

Today we have a deadly combination for decision making, falsification and confirmation bias. Falsification was popularized by Sir Karl Popper, a philosopher.  Falsification is the idea that the only way to test the validity of any theory was to prove…

I’m reading Homo Deus right now and the third section has started. In it, Y.K. Harrari begins by analyzing the two systems of thought that humans make decisions by. He calls these the experience side, and the narrative side. The…

I have a feeling people talk about tradeoffs with a bit too much confidence, as if they understood how easy it is to make a tradeoff.  I feel this because I think I am one of those people.  I talk…

I often rush into things.  Work shows up on my desk or I read an article and I think its the next big thing or risk for my team.  I spend time picking at the tip of it, before reaching…