Frameworks or maps generate understanding by capturing the conceptual connections we see, which in turn help us see other important relationships. They are not just tools for sense-making; they also help us improve how we filter, allocate our attention, and develop useful knowledge.

Formulate decisions that will make you better informed for your next decision.

The ability to bring together diverse viewpoints into a richer, more sophisticated whole is at the center of continually improving your mental models in an increasingly complex world.

An increasing proportion of people never turn to a specific news site or broadcast program to find out what’s going on in the world. They find relevant news through social media, news aggregators, or their friends sharing links with them. Academics describe the phenomenon of not actively seeking news as the News Finds Me (NFM) perception.

If you are seeking to improve your thinking, prioritize content that has withstood the test of time over continuously scanning for the latest updates.

Learning in the expectation of having to teach others has been proven to improve how students organize their knowledge.39 This so-called protégé effect has been clearly demonstrated by the superior learning performance of those students who are also tutoring.

To improve performance, decisions must result in outcomes you can observe and learn from, designed to surface whatever information will be most valuable for your next decision. As much as possible make iterative decisions, building on lessons learned from previous ones.

Your adventures in information and ideas can feed your process of finding where you are called to invest your energy.

Herbert Simon coined the neologism “satisfice” to describe decisions that sufficed to satisfy a threshold of acceptability.