Mental Model - Abhishek Chakraborty (Page 2)

Thought Experiments

Thought Experiments help us engage in deliberate reasoning by exploring various circumstances, and predict their implications without conducting any real life experiments. Mastering thought experiments can help us stretch our minds by confronting difficult questions.

Private v Public Decisions

A private decision is something that affects only you. A public decision, on the other hand, affects others as well—who don’t take part in the decision-making process. Therefore, how you approach them are completely different.

Demand-Side Sales: Everybody Wants to Buy, But Nobody Wants to be Sold to

The art of selling has got a bad rap. For some reason, it feels icky. Like an unnatural push to get people to buy what you’re offering. Mostly because we’ve got the whole narrative of selling backwards.

Margin of Safety: An Antidote to Risk, Uncertainty, and Ignorance

No matter how smart or confident you (think you) are, it would be foolish to assume that everything is in your control, and nothing would go wrong. There are unknown unknowns lurking around. You need a Margin of Safety in your bets. Always!

Antilibrary: Why What You Don’t Know is More Valuable Than What You Know

An antilibrary—the unread books in our collection—represents what we don’t know. It’s a reminder of our ignorance. It’s a delineation of the fact that even if we pursue knowledge for the next 100 years, we won’t be able to know everything there is to know. In fact, not even a tiny fraction of it.

Fermi Problems: How You Think About A Problem Is More Important Than The Solution

If a question is asked in a school exam, you know that the answer exists. But in a wicked world, often there’s no clear indication that you are approaching the correct solution. Therefore how you think about solving problems becomes more important than the solutions themselves.

Kind v Wicked Domains: Why Sports Champions Aren’t Your Success Gurus

Knowledge and experience cannot be generalised. Skillset in one domain isn’t always transferable to another domain, i.e., they are often domain dependent. A great chess player isn’t automatically a great strategist. A good poker player isn’t automatically a good dealmaker.

Thinking in Bets: Use This Simple Framework to Vet Ideas And Avoid Misbeliefs

In the beginning, gossip gave us an advantage over apes, and thereby helped in the progress of Homo Sapiens. Later, gossip helped us form social groups and bands. In practice, gossips are not very distinguishable from facts—that’s where lies the problem.