Mental Models

[[meta-skill]] [[decision-making]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5SBcAuqCSg&t=1s 5 Mental Models to Think like a Strategic Genius

What is a mental model? It is simply a way of thinking about the world. It's impossible to see the world in its whole complexity, but every brain can see the world through any lens. Equipping a mental model is like putting on glasses that help you see the world in a different way.

Control the Center

The center of the chess board is extremely valuable because the same pieces there exhibit more of an impact than if they were in the corner. Applying this to life is essentially the 80/20 principle

The True Value of Pieces

This is more related to delegation, but if you have people are your team, it is your responsibility to know their true value, which is not just the sum of their time plus their skills, but more factors like their personality, drive, etc. Moreover, this mental model is also about leveraging your network. Instead of asking how to solve this problem, ask who do I know that can solve this problem? [[problem-solving]]

Think about position not submission

Spend time getting to a better position instead of trying to "win the game". This is things like improving your [[environment]]

Own the Initiative

Instead of reacting tto everything, plan your actions and think strategically. What does it mean to own the initiative here?

The knight retreat

Sometimes in life, the best move forward is to retreat. What move am I not even considering because it looks so wrong.

The Map is not a Territory

Every reduction is by definition lacking all of the detail. Every spreadsheet doesn't actually represent the true financial situation of the company. Every book doesn't truely encompass the author's thoughts, every description of a project isn't actually a description of a project [[Product Development]] [[finances]] Before making an important decision, be sure to fully understand the territory.

Circle of Competence

There are some decisions well within our circle of competence, some on the edge of our circle of competence, and ideas outside our cicrle of competence. Before making a decision, understand where the decision lies. If it is within your circle of competence, act on it. If it is outside, you know you need to gain more understanding or find someone who has that item in their circle of competence.

Second Order Thinking

Most people only think about the direct result of their actions, instead of thinking deeper, about the second order effects of their thinking. When making a decision think about the second order effects and you'll be far ahead of others.

Probabilistic Thinking

Think about probabilies. Everything is probabalistic

Inversion

This is powerful because you look at problems in different ways. Look at a different end from where you are starting from. Ex. Instead of thinking about success and what that looks like, you can think about failure and what that looks like and avoid that. Ex. Instead of thinking "how to solve this problem" think about why this problem happens, how would I not solve this problem.

Occam's Razor

Simplest explanation is often the best. Don't overcomplicate things.

Hanlon's Razor

You shouldn't attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence

Reciprocity

For every action there is an equal reaction. Do unto others knowing that same thing will be done unto yoy

Activation Energy

The energy required to start something is much higher than it seems, and it is not the same as the energy needed to maintain. A similar analogy to chemistry, you can also find catalysts in your life (environment) that makes doing harder things easier.

Inertia

Most things have inertia -- a difficulty to change. Identify things in life that exist because of "social inertia". An example could be alcohol. It is so problematic but people don't try to remove it because there is so much inertia.

Natural Selection

Useful things survive and useless things die

Catalysts accelerate chemical and social change

When trying to solve problems, think about what would catalysze the change if it happened? What accelerates of change can you make?

Knowledge is an alloy

The more knowledge you have, and the most varied the knowledge is, the more powerful your problem solving and creativity skills become

What is the easiest, laziest way to achieve my result?

If you want to achieve a result, asking this question will lead to you cutting out the things that don't lead to the result, but a perfectionist would care about

Subconscious mind

The subconscious mind is very prevalant. Just because you are not aware of something does not mean it exists. You can see the influence of your and other's subconscious mind through their behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.

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topics_from_llama3.2:3b: [[Decision-making Model]] [[Problem-solving Strategies]] [[Innovation Catalysts]] [[Strategic Thinking]] [[Optimization Techniques]] [[decision-making]]