The Best Mental Models
The First Principles Method Explained by Elon Musk
youtu.beThe Second-Order Thinking Mental Model
linkedin.com
A mental model is simply a representation of how something works. We cannot keep all of the details of the world in our brains, so we use models to simplify the complex into understandable and organizable chunks.
Farnam Street • Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained)
Reasoning by analogy, or copying what others are doing, is sort of like being a cover band where you’re playing somebody else’s music. Whereas with first-principles thinking, you go back to the fundamental raw materials of music, which are the notes, and then you build an original song from scratch. That is first-principles thinking.
Lenny Rachitsky • First-Principles Thinking
A Margin of Safety: How to Thrive in the Age of Uncertainty
jamesclear.com
A first principle is a basic assumption that cannot be deduced any further. Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle defined a first principle as “the first basis from which a thing is known.”
First principles thinking is a fancy way of saying “think like a scientist.” Scientists don’t assume anything. They start with questions like, What are we... See more
First principles thinking is a fancy way of saying “think like a scientist.” Scientists don’t assume anything. They start with questions like, What are we... See more
jamesclear.com • First Principles: Elon Musk on the Power of Thinking for Yourself
The Circle of Competence is a mental model that involves developing a knowledge of what specific areas an individual has an understanding of or experience in. Everyone has built up useful knowledge in some area of the world. By realizing where your strengths lie, you can determine the areas where you have very little familiarity and avoid them to... See more
What is the Circle of Competence and How Do You Find Yours? | MyWallSt
Species tend to adapt to their surroundings in order to survive, given the combination of their genetics and their environment – an always-unavoidable combination. However, adaptations made in an individual’s lifetime are not passed down genetically, as was once thought: Populations of species adapt through the process of evolution by natural... See more
Farnam Street • Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained)
The Red Queen Effect