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10 Mental Models to Improve Your Thinking
Clear the noise in your head
You can’t see reality directly, all you can see is mental models.
Our mental models are just a simplified version of reality, we carry in our heads, and help us make sense of the world facilitating decision making.
Reality is too complex, there is far too much data to process, without models we’d be lost.
However, no model is perfect, these are some of their limitations:
- Models are just approximations, not reality
- We need to use the correct model or at least several of them in order to avoid bias
We have a tendency to use a limited number of models, those we’ve been taught, ignoring the rest.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
Engineers think in systems, psychologists in incentives and biologist in evolution models.
It’s important that we are aware of our own blind spots and correct them if we want to make better decisions.
10 useful models you can use in your daily life
1. The narrative model
We have a strong tendency to create stories out of random unconnected events. We…
