Latticework of Ideas
This is a collection of Ideas I commonly use in decision making. This list is never final and will be updated from time to time. If you believe I am missing an important Idea, or if you believe I did not sufficiently explain an Idea, please let me know.
I use the term “Idea” instead of the term “Mental Model” to honour Plato, to whom I attribute the discovery.
Where possible, the following Ideas are presented in the following form:
- USEFULNESS: What is useful about the Idea?
- APPLICABILITY: When does the Idea apply?
- SYNTHESIS: When the Idea does not apply, which other Idea does apply?
“The better decision maker has at his/ her disposal repertoires of possible actions; checklists of things to think about before he acts; and he has mechanisms in his mind to evoke these, and bring these to his conscious attention when the situations for decision arise.” Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate
In describing the individual models, I am expanding on the now discontinued website ThinkMentalModels.com.
Big Thinking Ideas
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Business
Engineering
Psychology
Pavlovian Association (includes Authority bias by Robert Cialdini + Marketing Brands)
