mental models

Whether he names it or not, Hobart practices Systemantics , the discipline of noticing what a system really optimizes for.

And the one simple goal of any student of Systemantics is to answer the question: what’s really going on here?

Naming a desired outcome creates a frame that constrains thinking. When you ask for "a better way to manage healthcare data with AI," you get solutions that fit that frame. You don't get unexpected breakthroughs that redefine the problem entirely.

The most transformative companies rarely emerge from someone else's problem statement. They come from f... See more

Some problems are like getting a diploma: you work at it for a while, and then you're done forever. Learning how to ride a bike is a classic diploma problem .

But most problems aren’t like that. They’re more like toothbrushing problems : you have to work at them forever until you die. You can’t, as far as I know, just brush your teeth really really... See more

Marl can also be a state of mind. We’ve all been Marl at one time or another - half consciously scrolling in bed, in line at the airport with the announcements blaring, reflexively opening our phones to distract ourselves from a painful memory. We don’t usually think about Marl, or identify with him. But the structure of the digital economy means m... See more

Here’s one of my favorite bad escape plans: I’ll just be a different person in the future. Like, “I know I hate working out, but in the future I will overcome this by not being such a baby about it.” Or, “I find quantum physics boring, so I’ll just learn about it later, when I find it more interesting.”

These are fantastical metamorphoses . I have n... See more