Mental models are fascinating exercises. They’re not just for geeks and shelf-help junkies. They’re for anyone who wants to sharpen their cognitive awareness.
Recently, I discovered a group called Thinknetic. They have a great line of learning materials including a visual display titled Break Your Thinking Patterns – 21 Timeless Cognitive Tools to Make Smarter Decisions.
This short pot of gold covers good stuff like Socratic Questions, Logical Fallacies, Cognitive Biases, Cognitive Distortions, Heuristics, and Mental Models.
Here are six screenshots of their infographics.
Kill Zoners – Are any of these familiar? Are these models useful in your day-to-day world? Have you applied them? Don’t be shy about commenting!
I can see how Socratic Questions could be useful in crafting storylines, Garry.
From what I know of Socrates, Sue, is that he was an annoying little man with all those constabnt questions. It didn’t end well for him.
If news of these models ever gets out, 95% of social media will shut down.
You got that right, Mike!
A consummation devoutly to be wished, M.C. Alas, that “model” neglects adrenaline addiction, a major factor, perhaps the major factor in “social” media. I’m not sure which cognitive tool, above, would call for its inclusion. Which of them come to mind in this context?
I had to look through the infographs, JGA, and I think Bandwith Fallacy fits the bill.
Yes, or its neighbor, Single Cause Fallacy.
Or Emotional Reasoning.
That too. Or maybe all of them.
JGA – I love your thinking.
Garry, Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Distortions sound like useful tools to build flawed characters. I just wish the screenshot was larger for my poor old eyes. Is there a link to the infographics? Thanks!
Hi Debbie. I originally published thia on my website. Here’s the link: https://dyingwords.net/21-cognitive-tools-for-smarter-decisions/ Just click on the images and they will open in a new window which you can then enlarge. For some reason, Thinknetics is hard to find on a web search. They’re a book publisher in Austin, and I got this via LinkedIn.
Thanks, Garry!
Good morning, Garry! Becca Syme’s approach of Questioning the Premise (QTP) in her Quit series takes a Socratic questioning approach to challenges we face as writers. We all create premises based on our experiences, emotions etc but often fail to question those premises to see if they work for us. Example: “I must write a book a month in order to succeed as a writer.” QTP that to see it really holds true, or could even be desirable for you as an individual.
Some of the other tools remind me of techniques I’ve learned from studying Stoicism, including pausing after an initial reaction (say anger) and reflecting (or taking a break) before taking an action.
Hi Dale. Interesting that you mention Stoicism which is a subject/philosophy that intrigues me and have been a student of for some time. One of the core principles is not the events that matter but how we choose to respond to the events. I think that fits right in with your QTP premise.
Morning Garry! I remember reading about this on your site a few weeks ago. These cognitive tools are a great outline for critical thinking skills, something we seem to have lost touch with lately. Like Mike mentioned, social media is fueled by opinion. Pesky facts aren’t usually welcome.
This is also a great list for creating flawed characters. Lots of room for humor here.
And good morning to you, Kay. I recycled this from Dyingwords, partly because I was short of time and partly because I think there is useful information here that should be shared. As for social media, I like the quote, “Being offended by something on the internet is like walking along and finding a pile of dogcrap and choosing to stop and roll in it rather than stepping around and keeping on.”
Thanks, Garry! This is a gem of a post for sure.
I like the section on Cognitive Distortions . . . “all-or-nothing thinking”, “over-generalization”, “emotional reasoning”. Why?
Guilty, guilty, guilty! Reading that section was like looking into a mirror. If I (we) stopped this behavior, what a world it’d be!
(Maybe I’ll just shovel this kind of thinking over to a character…)
Have a great Cognitive Day! 🙂
You’re most welcome, Deb. Cognitive Biases rates right up there with Cognitive Distortions. Guilty on both counts here.