Mental model examples: How to actually use them | Elon Musk

submited by

Style Pass

2021-08-28 19:30:05

Elon Musk is on record that he makes decisions using the same technique as Jeff Bezos. I found YouTube videos of them explaining their "mental models," which is what prompted this post.

Mental models are frameworks for thinking. They simplify complex situations so you can reason through them easily. They help you make good, long-term decisions without needing to know everything about a situation.

Few people deliberately use mental models every day. Your hunter-gatherer brain is not wired to prioritize them. Your brain is biased toward instincts and short-term objectives. This inability to plan for the future is a phenomenon known as hyperbolic discounting.

However, in every generation, a few humans manage to rewire their biology: they force themselves to always think in mental models.

This outlier discipline is how a young physics geek obsessed with clear thinking found himself the founder of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX in a short amount of time. In fact, Musk, Bezos, and Buffet are on record talking about the critical importance of mental models.