The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology

All living beings require energy to perform their daily functions, including sleeping. Over time, species have developed different mechanisms to increase their energy efficiency. The tendency in organisms to conserve their energy is what ensures they will have extra to draw on in times of increased need. For humans, we have to be careful though, to

There is no universal human definition of a great life. Sometimes these instincts push us to reject the status quo, leading to new opportunities. And sometimes they hold us back, preventing us from realizing our potential.

As Kahneman explains, “A general ‘law of least effort’ applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balan

“satisficing,” we’ll often search for the first thing in our brain that satisfies our minimum acceptable conditions. This saves time and energy, but it doesn’t mean we get the best outcome.

Why is it that if someone knocks the table the coins will get mixed up, or that despite their best efforts your children inevitably get jelly into the peanut butter jar and vice versa? “The explanation is that there are more ways for [coins] to be mixed up than sorted. There are more ways for peanut butter and jelly to contaminate each other’s cont

a mental model is simply a representation of how something works. We use models to retain knowledge and simplify how we understand the world. We can’t relearn everything every day, and so we construct models to help us chunk patterns and navigate our world more efficiently.

Territorial behavior is not necessary if resources are abundant and organisms will generally cease to engage in it over time if this is the case. The scarcer resources prove to be, the more aggressive the territorial behavior is likely to be.

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 stronger we are relative to others, the less willing we generally are to change. We see strength as an immediate advantage that we don’t want to compromise. However, it’s not strength that survives, but adaptability. Strength becomes rigidity. Eventually your competitors will match your strength or find innovative ways to neutralize it. Real su

change. A health scare may push someone to improve their habits. For many people, unpleasant events, such as getting fired or rejected, prove to be catalysts for tremendous personal growth.