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

One of the drawbacks of hierarchies is the lack of perceived value of those who are at the bottom. “An efficient new gathering strategy devised by a low-ranking chimpanzee, for example, might not get replicated just because of her status in society.”3 Hierarchies in the human world act as information filters causing us to potentially miss opportuni

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. Isolated systems are those that spontaneously progress toward the state of maximum entropy of the system, also described as thermal equilibrium—no

The printing press acted as a catalyst to accelerate the process of obtaining knowledge. There was now a repeatable process for copying knowledge: books. These books were cheaper and faster to make than the old manuscripts, and thus were more widely available.

We need force to effect change, and force requires effort. This

3 Politicians have no choice but to respond to the incentives to think short-term; otherwise, they won’t gain voter support.

This is why having a direction is so important: it lets us evaluate the usefulness of what we are doing by giving us a measurement of where we want to go.

In essence, leverage refers to making something light by raising it in a specific manner—using a lever.

“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 balance of benefits and cos

that consistent but infrequent rewards can create stronger behavioral changes than those that are given all the time.