Mental models are described by Josh Kaufman “as concepts that represent our understanding of “how things work.” For instance, Think of driving a car: what do you expect when you press down on the right-side pedal? If the car slows down, you’ll be surprised-that pedal is supposed to be the accelerator. That’s a mental model-an idea about how something works in the real world.”
Everything we think we know about the world is a model. Every word and language is a model. All maps, books, equations, stories, and programs are models. Everything we know is a perception of the world. In other words, it’s a mental model of objective reality.
In my day-to-day interaction with the world, I use a few mental models which have immensely helped with my progress and achievements.
Pain or Progress
This is one of my favorite models for evaluating decisions that have emotional components attached to them. An example would clarify this better. Imagine you are driving and a person crosses the car. You come to a screeching halt and get angry. You decide to shout and explain to the driver his reckless act. Now you can go on and on and on or you can sit down and drive to where you are going. As Vusi Thembekwayo puts it, “you can have the emotion or progress but you cannot have both.
Let me give you another example, imagine your child does something naughty while you are working at home. You get angry and tell your child off. Again, you can keep making yourself angry or get back to work. You cannot have both. Either the pain or progress?
I use this technique any time I lose money or make a mistake at work. I either keep getting upset about my loss or make progress. By looking to get my next sale in and increase my income to recover the losses.
Do anything but not Everything
This one is an oldie but a goodie. The central idea is to focus. As the Anonymous saying goes, if you chase two rabbits, you will lose both. There is no denying that multitasking is a myth. It is biologically impossible for a human being to do two cognitively demanding tasks at once.
The key to achieving more is one thing at a time. As Keller and Papasan put it, doing one thing is the surprising secret behind extraordinary success. Single focus is key to a life of success. The idea is not that you cannot have many goals or ideas. The key is to focus on each at one point in time.
In a business environment, this mental model helps us to look at the opportunity cost of capital usage. For example, if an investment has an annual return of 18 %, you are better off not investing and buying Government Bonds. The Government Bonds pay 19.75% per annum.
Be Effective as Opposed to Efficient
Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4-hour week argues that we have to be effective as opposed to Efficient. Is there a difference? Yep!
Being efficient is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. On other hand, being effective is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. As Peter Drucker writes “ there is nothing more wasteful than doing something that needs not be done. The key to productivity is being effective as opposed to being efficient. You can efficiently do something that doesn’t create value. As Henry David Thoreau says, it’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are you busy about?
Default state of Nature
The default state or normal workings of nature is that everything on earth is heading towards a state of decay. This constant state of decay is known as entropy. The natural increase of entropy over time in a closed system is known as the second law of thermodynamics. Simply put there is a cycle of life and decay happening all the time around us. Plants are pollinating, growing, and dying. The cycle continues anew the next day.
To slow down the process, we have to continually put energy back into systems to maintain their desired orderly states.
Let me give you an example, let’s take health, the less you exercise the more tired and exhausted you become. The more you exercise the more energetic you become. There is no middle ground with nature. The less you exercise, the lower your health. The more you exercise, the better your health.
Another great example is learning, As Naval Ravikant puts it “ there is no shortcut to smart”. To become knowledgeable you need to learn and read more.
The same is true for relationships. There is no good relationship without constant effort in communication and nurturing. There is no great relationship built on autopilot. To get a great relationship, you need to put in the effort. To keep the same level of trust with your spouse or friends, you need to keep building on it.
Ultimately, nature is never static, by not doing anything you actually deteriorate. You need to focus and expel effort to achieve anything worthwhile. Positive Action and application are everything.
My thoughts
These mental models help me deal with about 80% of the challenges I encounter on a daily basis. As usual, pick and mix and derive which thinking options work for you.
Until next time wealth builders, let’s build wealth!
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Focus on one thing at a time.
Thanks Ben
Yes bro. One thing
Nice. How many others receive your material. Very informative. Keep it up.
Thanks
Thanks Benji. I found it worthy.
You welcome