Mental Models Quotes

"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over."

"Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward."

"Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers."

"To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

"You have to have models in your head. And you've got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models."

"What makes a decision great is not that it has a great outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process."

"We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events."

"I think the most important mental model is to try and see the world as it is, not as you want it to be."

"If you can’t successfully do something, it’s because you have a mental model that’s wrong."

"A paradigm is a mental model. If you cannot change your mind, you cannot change anything."

"We should look at the world as it is and not as we want it to be."

"If you see a fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud."

"Mental models are chunks of knowledge from various disciplines that can be used to explain how the world works."

"The quality of our decision-making depends on the mental models in our heads."

"The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological-social-psychological-economic system."

"Scout mindset is the motivation to see things as they are, not as you wish they were."

"A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason."

"Mental models are like tools in a toolbox. The more tools you have, the better equipped you are to fix the problem."

"The best way to build a mental model is to learn the foundational basics of every field."

"The most important thing is to have a wide range of mental models, because if you only have one or two, you’ll try to bend reality to fit them."

"Thinking in bets starts with an admission that we don't know for sure."

"The more models you have, the better you can understand reality and the better you can solve problems."

"Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness, uncertainty, chaos: you want to use them, not hide from them."

"Mental models are the way that we understand the world. Not only do they shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see."

"You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper."

"Mental models are the ways that we think things work. They are the engines that drive our decision-making."

"Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world."

"We are too focused on the outcome and not focused enough on the process."

"By learning to use a variety of mental models, you can overcome your natural biases and see the world more clearly."

"We see, but we do not observe. The distinction is critical."

"Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what has happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works."

"The scout mindset is the drive not to make one idea win or another lose, but to see what's really there as honestly and accurately as you can."

"The more we know about how our minds work, the better we can navigate the world."