2025-02-02

Mental Models

Here’s a concise overview of 100 mental models that can help navigate life, organized into categories for simplicity:

Decision Making & Problem Solving

First Principles Thinking - Break problems down to their fundamental truths.
Inversion - Think about what you want to avoid to achieve your goal.
Occam’s Razor - Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.
Hanlon’s Razor - Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Second-Order Thinking - Consider the consequences of consequences.
Probabilistic Thinking - Evaluate decisions based on likelihood and impact.
Margin of Safety - Leave room for error in your plans.
Reductio ad Absurdum - Push an idea to its extreme to see if it holds up.
Backward Induction - Solve problems by starting with the end goal and working backward.
Heuristics - Use simple, efficient rules to form judgments and make decisions.

Behavior & Psychology

Cognitive Biases - Understand common errors in thinking like confirmation bias, anchoring, etc.
Reciprocity - People feel obligated to give back to others who have given to them.
Loss Aversion - The pain of losing is psychologically about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.
Social Proof - People tend to do what they see others doing.
Scarcity - Perceived scarcity increases value.
Sunk Cost Fallacy - Don’t let past investments dictate future actions if they’re not beneficial.
Commitment and Consistency - People strive to be consistent with what they have already committed to.
Halo Effect - One trait influences the overall impression of a person or product.
Framing - The way information is presented affects decisions and judgments.
Endowment Effect - People ascribe more value to things merely because they own them.

Learning & Knowledge

Ladder of Inference - Understand how you jump from data to assumptions and conclusions.
Mental Accounting - People treat money differently depending on its source or intended use.
The Map is Not the Territory - Understand that models are representations, not reality itself.
Circle of Competence - Stick to areas where you have expertise.
Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) - 80% of results come from 20% of efforts.
Learning Curve - Efficiency increases with experience and practice.
Feedback Loops - Systems where outputs are used as inputs, amplifying or dampening effects.
Zeigarnik Effect - Uncompleted tasks are more likely to stick in your memory.
Anchoring - Using an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
Spaced Repetition - Learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out over time.

Systems & Structures

Systems Thinking - Understand how parts of a system interact to produce outcomes.
Emergence - Complex patterns and behaviors arise from simple, individual actions.
Equilibrium - The balance point where opposing forces or trends cancel each other out.
Leverage Points - Places within a complex system where a small shift can produce big changes.
Network Effects - The effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product for others.
Redundancy - Having extra capacity or backup to ensure reliability.
Path Dependence - Historical events or decisions constrain future possibilities.
Bottlenecks - Points of congestion in a system that slow down the whole process.
Flywheel Effect - Momentum in a system that, once started, keeps going with less effort.
Antifragility - Systems that gain from disorder or stress.

Economics & Business

Comparative Advantage - Specialize in areas where you’re relatively more efficient.
Opportunity Cost - The cost of the next best alternative foregone.
Diminishing Returns - Additional inputs yield progressively smaller outputs.
Economies of Scale - Cost advantages gained by increased production.
Game Theory - Strategic decision-making where outcome depends on others’ choices.
Incentives - People respond to rewards and penalties.
Tragedy of the Commons - Shared resources tend to be depleted through individual self-interest.
Market Cycles - Understand the boom and bust cycles in markets.
Supply and Demand - Price is determined by the balance between what’s available and what’s wanted.
Value vs. Price - The difference between intrinsic worth and market price.

Physics & Science

Newton’s Laws - Basic principles of motion and force.
Conservation of Energy - Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.
Entropy - The tendency of systems to move towards disorder.
Critical Mass - The minimum size or amount needed for a process to sustain itself.
Feedback - Information about reactions to a product, used as a basis for improvement.
Phase Transitions - Changes between different states of matter or conditions.
Relativity - Time and space are interwoven and influenced by gravity.
Wave-Particle Duality - Matter and light exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties.
Chaos Theory - Small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes.
Thermodynamics - Laws governing energy, work, and heat transfer.

Biology & Evolution

Natural Selection - Process where species adapt and evolve based on survival success.
Genetic Drift - Random fluctuations in the frequency of alleles in a population.
Symbiosis - Close and often long-term interactions between different biological species.
Homeostasis - The tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements.
Mutation - Changes in DNA sequence which can lead to evolution.
Adaptation - A trait with a current functional role in the life of an organism.
Heredity - Passing of traits from parents to offspring.
Ecosystem Services - Benefits humans freely gain from ecosystems.
Coevolution - Evolutionary change in one species caused by another species.
Succession - Predictable changes in species composition over time in ecosystems.

Philosophy & Ethics

Stoicism - Focus on what you can control, accept what you cannot.
Utilitarianism - Maximizing happiness for the greatest number.
Deontology - Duty-based ethics where actions are judged by rules.
Existentialism - Individuals are free and responsible for giving meaning to their lives.
Pragmatism - Truth is determined based on practical consequences.
Moral Hazard - When one party takes risks because another bears the cost.
The Golden Rule - Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Virtue Ethics - Emphasizes virtues or moral character.
Consequentialism - Morality of an action is judged solely by its consequences.
The Socratic Method - Learning through questioning to stimulate critical thinking.

Communication & Relationships

Active Listening - Fully concentrating, understanding, responding, and then remembering what is being said.
Nonviolent Communication - A method of communication that focuses on empathy, honesty, and self-responsibility.
Mirroring - Reflecting back what someone else is saying or feeling to show understanding.
Confirmation Bias in Relationships - Seeing what confirms your beliefs about someone.
Reciprocity in Relationships - The give-and-take dynamic.
Social Exchange Theory - Social behavior as an exchange process aimed at maximizing benefits.
Empathy - Understanding and sharing the feelings of another.
Transactional Analysis - Understanding human behavior in terms of ego states.
Projection - Attributing one’s own qualities or feelings to another.
Boundary Setting - Defining personal limits in relationships.

Personal Development

Growth Mindset - Belief in the ability to develop abilities through dedication and hard work.
Kaizen - Continuous improvement through small, incremental changes.
Self-Efficacy - Belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations.
Resilience - Ability to recover quickly from difficulties.
Flow - State of complete immersion and focus in an activity.
Habit Formation - Building consistent patterns of behavior.
Delayed Gratification - Ability to wait to get what you want.
Self-Reflection - Examining one’s own thoughts and actions.
Emotional Regulation - Managing one’s emotional reactions.
Mindfulness - Being fully present and engaged in the now.

This list provides a broad base from which to view and navigate life’s complexities. Each model can be delved into further for a more nuanced understanding.