Mental Models — A Latticework of Critical Thinking

Posted on by

“A mental model is a compression of how something works. Any idea, belief, or concept can be distilled down. Like a map, mental models reveal key information while ignoring irrelevant details. Models concentrate the world into understandable and useable chunks.”

This quote is from Shane Parrish who hosts a fascinating blog and podcast called Farnam Street. I’ve subscribed to Shane’s site for years and look forward to his weekly newsletter that arrives every Sunday morning. It’s free, but you can purchase a more in-depth dive for only a few bucks a month. It’s worth every nickel.

An extensive piece that Shane put together is titled Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~ 100 Models Explained) that deals with thought experiments. He covers a vast array of subjects like Circle of Competence, Reciprocity, First Principle Thinking, Second Order Reasoning, Inversion, Probabilistics, Inertia, Leverage, Compounding, and Entropy. Here’s the link: https://fs.blog/mental-models/

This is a short submission to the Kill Zone today. I’m on vacation and traveling for most of this Thursday. I can’t respond to comments till about noon PST, but I wanted to generate discussion around critical thinking and how it applies to our work as writers.

Who has heard of mental models and the latticework of integration into thought processing? Has anyone else tapped into Shane Parrish and his Farnam Street world? And who develops characters (like Sherlock Holmes) who use woven or latticed mental models in their thinking? Comments, please.  🙂

17 thoughts on “Mental Models — A Latticework of Critical Thinking”

  2. Wow, Garry, that’s a lot of info to absorb. Need more coffee!

    Bottlenecks can cause complications in fiction: “As with a clogged artery or a blocked drain, a bottleneck in the production of any good or service can be small but have a disproportionate impact if it is in the critical path. However, bottlenecks can also be a source of inspiration as they force us to reconsider if there are alternate pathways to success.”

    Bribery is a big theme in my WIP and is also covered in the article: “the concept of bribery is central to human systems: Given the chance, it is often easier to pay a certain agent to look the other way than to follow the rules.”

    Now the big question: how do we achieve “critical mass” in book sales????

    Have a great vacation!

    • Hi Debbie – Just home now and going thru comments. Critical mass in book sales… No magic formula or silver bullet. In my experience, it’s a compounding numbers game. Write more books. Publishing in multi-formats and on multi-platforms. Stacked paid promotions. And keep on writing! My blog has really paid off for me in contacts, followers, and long-term vision. And being a recognized name – which why posting and commenting on sites like this makes you a recognized name. Plus being a really good writer like you are. Happy weekend, my friend!

  3. Hanlon’s Razor states that we should not attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity.

    That is a mouthful of life wisdom, right there.

    I subscribed. Thanks, Garry! And have a super day, you and Rita.

  4. Thanks for another thought-provoking post, Garry. I had subscribed to Shane’s newsletter a while ago after you recommended it. I like this entry from “Mental Models”:
    “Inertia. An object in motion with a certain vector wants to continue moving in that direction unless acted upon.”
    That relates to writing: A person with hands on keyboard and writing will continue to do so. A person scrolling through social media sites to avoid writing will continue to do so. 🙂

    Have a great vacation.

    • Great comment, Kay. One day, you and I gotta talk flying. You’ve done it. I’m a wanna be. But both of us spend all our time now writing rather than wasting time on social media…. uhm… not.

      • My husband is a glider (sailplane) pilot. I prefer an engine on the front of the plane when I fly. 🙂 Although neither of us is current, we love to talk flying. Anytime you want.

        Take care.

  5. “Populations of species adapt through the process of evolution by natural selection, as the most-fit examples of the species replicate at an above-average rate.”

    More precisely, it’s that the least fit die at a rate that is significantly above average, thus replicating at a below average net rate. Yes, this does lower the overall average replication, thus giving the most fit a relatively higher apparent replication. Actually, lacking other influences, the most fit cohort will continue to replicate at the exact same number of offspring per thousand cohort members as before.

    • JGA, you’re a national treasure. I just love your comments. I move that your image be sculped into a mountain. BTW, I screen-saved your comment and printed it for my quote scrapbook. Expect to see it crop up in my next book.

    • Vacation enjoyed, Elaine. Back at home now which is like a permanent vacation. I found this quote somewhere: “I finally built a life I don’t need a vacation from.”

      I was short of time to post on TKZ today, so I linked this. I always look for a topic I’m interested in, dig into it, and write my understanding of it in the thinking others will appreciate it, too. Mental models, in my view, are brain exercises and move us along on a path of cerebral activity that delays inevitable entropy.

Comments are closed.