Framers

They were bicycle experts, after all. Just as a cycle is inherently unstable but can be balanced and controlled by the rider when in motion, so too it was crucial that a plane could be controlled and balanced by a flier in the air.

Mental models bring order. They let us focus on essential things and ignore others—just as, at a cocktail party, we can hear the conversation that we’re in while tuning out the chatter around us. We craft a simulation of reality in our minds to anticipate how situations will play out.

The frames we employ affect the options we see, the decisions we make, and the results we attain. By being better at framing, we get better outcomes.

Counterfactual thinking is crucial to progress. People can envision what does not exist, as a way to understand the actual world and conceive of how it might be different. We do this by asking what-if questions. Our imaginings need not be meaningless daydreams; they are an essential precursor for action, an element of our preparation to make decisi

Each year, more than 700,000 people around the world die from infections that antibiotics once cured but no longer do. The bacteria have developed resistance. The number of deaths is rising fast. Unless a solution is found, it is on track to hit ten million a year, or one person every three seconds.

We have seen that computers cannot consider causality and cannot concoct counterfactuals. They also cannot conjure up constraints. Algorithms on their own are unable to impose boundaries and limitations.

At the core of any frame lies a trade-off. The fewer constraints, the more counterfactuals a frame can generate. This gives a decision-maker more options, but it also means that many impractical ones have to be weeded out. The more constraints, the fewer options a frame elicits. This helps keep the decision-maker focused, but runs the risk of missi

The telephone was first thought about as a way to listen to music remotely: people would dial in to hear a concert. The phonograph was considered to be a way to communicate messages:

Einstein reframed physics by showing that time, long considered constant, is actually relative.