The Great Mental Models Volume 2

Become what you want to see in the world and it will be so. If you want an amazing relationship with your partner, be an amazing partner. If you want people to be thoughtful and kind, be thoughtful and kind. If you want people to listen to you, listen to them. The best way to achieve success is to deserve success. Small changes in your actions chan

It helps us understand randomness and disorder in systems and explains the conversion of energy from one form to another, the direction in which heat will flow, and the availability of energy to do work. One of the most useful aspects of thermodynamics is that it applies to all systems everywhere in the known universe, giving it a broad applicabili

Perspective often comes from distance or time. If you’re trying to solve a problem and you’re stuck, try shifting your vantage point. Examples of this are moving up and contemplating the bigger picture, moving down and seeing more details, or assuming the perspective of other stakeholders—customers, suppliers, partners, government. Many problems be

John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.”

Life is an iterative and compounding game. In the words of Peter Kaufman, it pays to “go positive and go first.” Also, remember that people make mistakes. Assuming there is no maliciousness, it pays to forgive.

Catalysts lead to change. The right catalyst makes an endeavor that once seemed impossible simple. It need not only be about wide, systemic changes, like those described above. There are many smaller catalysts that we encounter in our everyday lives. Getting out of breath while walking up a flight of stairs might be the catalyst for someone to star

The fourth law of thermodynamics is known as the zeroth law. This is because it was formulated after the first three laws but is fundamental to and assumed by the others. It states that if two objects are in thermal equilibrium with a third object, then those two objects are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.

The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy (a measure of disorder simply understood as energy unable to be used to do work) of an isolated system always increases.

The relevance of mass has analogous application in our habits. The longer we’ve been doing something, the more it has become part of both our identity and our understanding of the world. Thus, the amount of effort required to change a habit is greater proportional to the length of time we’ve had it. What is true for the individual is also true for

In physics, reciprocity is Newton’s third law, which states that for every force exerted by object A on object B, there is an equal but opposite force exerted by object B on object A. Every force involves the interaction of two objects where the force asserted by one is reciprocated with an equally powerful and directionally opposite force by the o