Brew Your Own Mental Models
Critical thinking is increasingly needed to make good decisions in a chaotic world where so much of the content that’s created is junk food for the mind. Adopting Mental Models is a great way to cut through the noise, but I challenge you to also make your own.
Not only does the process exercise our critical thinking abilities, it liberates us from mere consumers of information to independent generators of valuable insights.
All you need is your own powers of observation and some time for reflection.
Why Are Mental Models Important?
Mental models are a simple ways to help us understand complex real world problems, so that we can make better decisions. They’re like a set of glasses with interchangeable lenses. Each model is a different lens that helps us see connections and patterns that we’d otherwise overlook, and allow us to make predictions about how the future might turn out.
Let’s take the example of a leaky faucet. I could use the “cause and effect” model to identify the leak as the effect of a broken valve. I can also zoom out and engage “systems thinking”, which sees the leak as part of a larger plumbing system and that fixing the leak could affect other parts of this system.
As the world becomes more complex, it’s increasingly important for us to not only adopt other people’s mental models, but to create our own frameworks to exercise and express our critical thinking abilities.
Make Your Own Mental Models
Many of the mental models I use are original and come from life experience and conversations.
Investor Naval Ravikant notes that:
“Mental models are really just compact ways for you to recall your own knowledge. You have finite neurons—so you can almost think of these as pointers, addresses, or mnemonics to help you remember deep-seated principles where you have the underlying experience to back it up.”
Step 1: Connect the Dots
I often mind map good conversations the following morning to solidify the learnings and connect the dots. Sometimes the frameworks strike as I’m talking, other times they materialize while I map. Regardless of how I do it, the birth of new models is organic, empirically based on observations and emerging patterns. These spontaneous convergence of divergent ideas are what I call epiphanies.
Step 2: Form Hypothesis
Once the epiphany forms, I look for more examples of where it could apply. Two data points is often enough to form a trend (borrowing the mathematical definition of two points making a line), which I use to form a hypothesis.
Step 3: Stress Test
But a hypothesis isn’t enough to share it with others or make a YouTube video out of it. The usefulness of any mental model or principle is based on its explanatory and predictive power. Therefore, I need to stress test it first by applying it to different scenarios and people, and even backdating it to see how well it holds up.
If my new mental model fails to explain or predict anything, then it’s useless and I forget about it. It’s a rigorous internal struggle to evolve the strongest ideas.
The Root of Creative Models
Here’s a saying from Steve Jobs that I hold dear:
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.”
This is the essence of developing framework thinking. I’ve simply thought more deeply about my experiences by deliberately mind mapping and writing about them.
Below is a mind map I made to summarize my conversation with a friend. We were talking about the time compression of effect of chemistry, vulnerability and honesty on romantic relationships. Basically, these elements are rocket fuel for relationships.
The framework that emerged was: The faster a relationship moves, the more speed bumps and checks you need to prevent enmeshment and loss of agency and autonomy. When we are caught in the throes of elation, it can blind us to the true nature of the other person, which gets in the way of acceptance of flaws and, in effect, true love and long term sustainability.
This is just one example of how I synthesize life experiences into mental models. They are lens to examine our reality from critical angles.
Here are some of my most often used mental models and how I came up with them.
Home Brewed Models
The Third Line: Framework for maximizing life’s meaning
As we age, we are often forced to find different sources of meaning. It’s better to recognize this early and adapt rather be taken kicking and screaming into the dark.
The first line, body and career is destined to decline over time. The second line, community lifts our meaning higher, but it’s the third line of character and values that’s most within our control and brings the longest lasting fulfillment regardless of life’s chaos.
I originally drew these “life lines” on a napkin over a brunch discussion on the longevity of sources of meaning. I’ve since applied this model to everyone from young people struggling to find purpose to retired friends who are thriving into old age.
Be Tiger in your wins and Stoic in your loses: Develop a winning mindset
Celebrate your wins like Tiger Woods with lots of fist pumps to build up your subconscious mindset, but be as stoic as Marcus Aurelius when you fail and coldly analyze the results.
I adapted this framework from Mark Minervini’s Mindset Secrets for Winning. Breaking down and reconstructing other people’s knowledge in your own way allows us to “own” those concepts and apply it to our lives.
Success Triad: Level up in anything
To level up in any field, you need 1) Incentives, 2) Systems, and 3) Accountability.
I came up with this framework with a friend who was transitioning from politics to game design, which was then refined over a conversation with Brian who was looking to switch companies. We identified that the most effective accountability partners 1) know you, 2) have incentives aligned with your own, and 3) are able to push you.
Peak vs Fog View: What level are we talking about?
When analyzing information or talking to people about fast moving current events, I now ask myself if we’re having a Fog-level (immediate past, present, or future, first degree cause and effect, and emotional in nature, equivalent to 15-foot visibility) or Peak-level discussion (macro in scale and time, 2nd order thinking, and intellectual in nature, equivalent to being above the clouds).
The framework was inspired by this view of San Francisco as I was cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Silver and Steel: Humanity’s duality
This is a master model that I apply to everything from people to companies to geopolitics. Steel represents our power to influence the external world through science, technology, money etc. Silver represents fulfillment, values, emotions, and the ability to use our power wisely.
We need both elements to thrive as individuals and as a society. As I learn more about the nature of creativity, I’ve also classified divergent thinking as Silver and convergent thinking as Steel.
Interestingly enough, this framework was inspired by the fantasy novel (now Netflix) series The Witcher, whose protagonist has two swords: a steel one to cut down human enemies and a silver one to slay demons.
In the real world, demons come in many forms, and we can’t always use our Steel powers of rationality to deal with them. Hence the need for cultivating Silver tools.
At the end of the day, coming up with our own mental models is more than just exercising our critical thinking skills. It slows down time for us to reflect on and appreciate the experiences that make us who we are. We already have everything we need as long as we are observant, intentional and continue to acquire new life experiences.
I’d love to know:
What mental models, frameworks or analogies have proven useful in your life?
Have you ever created your own models?
Tweet or DM me on Twitter / Instagram @shengsilver.
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