Learning About Mental Models As A Teenager
Using frameworks from The Great Mental Models(Volumes 1 & 2) by Farnam Street
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“I think it is undeniably true that the human brain must work in models. The trick is to have your brain work better than the other person’s brain because it understands the most fundamental models: ones that will do the most work per unit. If you get into the mental habit of relating what you’re reading to the basic structure of the underlying ideas being demonstrated you gradually accumulate some wisdom” — Charlie Munger
I was first introduced to the concept of mental models around five months ago when my Dad ordered The Great Mental Models, by Rhiannon Beaubien and Shane Parrish, on Amazon. He had been listening to the audiobook version and thought it would be better to have a physical copy. He showed it to me, since I’m very much into books as well, and it sparked my interest. That’s when I started trying to build up my “latticework” of mental models.
The Great Mental Models(Volumes 1 & 2)
The Great Mental Models is almost like a dictionary for mental models. Mental models are frameworks that describe principles regarding how the world around us works. Oftentimes, these principles are used as a basis for effective decision-making. Mental models teach us how to live great lives since life is just a series of decisions, good and bad.
There will be a total of four volumes in this series, and so far two have been published: Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts, and Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. These volumes were written by Farnam Street, an organization centered around mental models and self-improvement.
Two of the best characteristics of these volumes are that they explain concepts with clarity and that the chapters read like blog posts, and you can, for the most part, read the mental models out of the order they’re written in, making them easier to continuously reference and think over.
Applying Mental Models
While reading about mental models is one thing, applying them in the real world is a whole other story. While I currently don’t find myself making important decisions on a daily basis, that is likely to change in the future as I grow older. By thinking, reflecting, as well as using them to make relatively smaller but still important decisions now, I hope to have a good repertoire of mental models to pull from in times of need and apply to various problems.
One project where I found these mental models helpful, First Principles in particular(which I will talk about later), was when my team and I worked on submitting a recommendation to the UN on increasing girl’s access to digital devices. We grappled with figuring out how we could enable more women and girls to access, create and influence technology by increasing digital skills and access to digital devices and the Internet(we focused on the country of Ghana).
We figured that a good way to get a holistic view of the problem was to break it down using first principles. To do so, we made something called a MECE(Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) chart. You can see the chart here, and our completed recommendation here!
My Favorite Mental Models!
The Map is Not the Territory
“The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent.”
A map, or model, is a diagram that allows you to have a broad/general understanding of reality itself. The depth of the map will always depend on how detailed it is, as well as how many variables it takes into account, but it will never be a perfect replica of reality. This is because then it wouldn’t be useful! If it were a perfect replica of reality, it would be reality itself, and then we would be right back to where we started!
While this is a somewhat obvious distinction between a map and reality, it is a key prelude to learning about mental models. This is the first mental model in the series, likely because this model is somewhat of a prerequisite for all the rest.
No mental model contains the complete truth, which is why we can’t have 100% dependence on just one framework. When you condense things you lose certain facets of reality.
First Principles Thinking
“Rather than reasoning by analogy, you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine” — Elon Musk
When tackling a complex problem, it's helpful to break it down to the first principles, or the fundamental truths and constraints. This is one of, if not the most, useful mental models I’ve started using so far.
This framework can be used on anything from solving a huge problem our world faces to debugging a faulty program. At a certain point, especially for smaller-scale things, breaking things down and simplifying things until they can’t be further simplified becomes an instinct as opposed to something you intentionally think about.
First Principles is also extremely useful in learning a new, complex, subject. As you continue learning and adding layers to your understanding, I think it’s important to remember the underlying truths of the subject matter.
Velocity
If you’ve completed middle school, you probably know that average velocity is equal to displacement over change in time. Velocity takes into account both speed, as well as direction. While it would be easy to measure our progress with just the metric of speed, but just because we are going very fast, doesn’t mean that we’re headed in a beneficial direction.
In almost all situations, the direction you’re going in is ultimately more important than speed. If you keep going in circles you won’t get anywhere, no matter how fast you’re going. You will have a velocity of zero.
That isn’t to say that speed is unimportant, but you can either sprint in the wrong direction, or you can jog in the right one!
How Mental Models Have Changed My Thinking
Before starting to learn about mental models, I don’t feel that I acted with purpose. The decisions I made and things I did weren’t based on any underlying frameworks. Not only did The Great Mental Models series teach me about specific frameworks and models, but it also taught me about how helpful it is to create your own frameworks for functioning in this world, based on what you know about yourself.
The third volume of this series is coming out in September 2021 and talks about Systems and Mathematics. I’m looking forward to reading the next volume and continuing to further understand fundamental mental models.
I’m just at the beginning. The process of integrating these mental models into one’s thinking and actually putting them to use is a process that starts but never ends.
About Me
Ishaana Misra is a 13-year-old interested in AI and medicine, especially the intersection of the two.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ishaana-misra/
Check out my newsletters: https://ishaana.substack.com
