The great mental models. Vol 2
I picked this book after reading Naval’s Alamanack by Eric Jorgenson. Naval puts a lot of emphasis on reading and learning about the basics, about mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and economics because those rule the world. Understanding the basics makes it easier to understand the complex world we live in.
Os as I read on twitter:
“Study mathematics to understand physics. Study physics to understand chemistry. Study chemistry to understand biology. Study biology to understand psychology. Study psychology to understand economics. Study economics and philosophy to be free”
It’s coming back to basics, building mental models that help you understand and re-shape the world around you. But what’s a mental model?:
“A mental model is simply a representation of how something works”
There are 22 Mental models in this book in the areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
My favorite? Thermodynamics. I always loved physics in school and college. I guess this is why I chose to become an engineer. A mechanical engineer. I love physics and thermodynamics. Nothing escapes the laws of thermodynamics. The 4 laws:
- Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred of changed from one form to another.
- Entropy (a measure of disorder simply understood as energy unable to be used to do work) of an isolated system always increases. Without the deployment of energy all things move away from order.
- As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a given system approaches a constant value.
- (or zero law) states that if two objects are in thermal equilibrium with a third object, then those two objects are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.
Also Inertia: Starting something is hard, but so is stopping something
In physics mass is very important. Affects everything. Force is mass x acceleration. Weight is mass x gravity … “The relevance of mass has analogous application in our habits. The longer we’ve been doing something, the more it has become part of both our identity and our understanding of the world”.
In our lives, time is similar to mass. The more time, the bigger the mass. That’s the power of habits.
Friction (and viscosity) are also very visible in our day to day: “to achieve our aims, reducing resistance is often easier than using more force”
On the difference of speed and velocity. You can have speed and not advance (running in a treadmill), while velocity requires direction.
“While speed ensures movement, velocity produces a result”
Which is your direction?
On levers, on what Archimedes famously said “Give me one firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.”. Levers are everywhere. Once you start looking for them. It’s not easy tough.
Important note on leverage ethics: it’s not about manipulation. It’s about influence.
Activation Energy is very easy to understand, but what it’s more subtle and at the same time key, is the concept that change that doesn’t last is easy. “Where a lot of people miss the mark on what is required to produce real change is figuring out the initial investment of energy needed to not only start the reaction, but to finish it”.
Real change, habits, require higher energy than simple actions. Invest and compound.
So compounding can also be defined as the reduction of energy necessary for an ever increasing change.
And what can accelerate change? A catalyst.
“Alloying is done in order to synthesize a product with unique properties, such as greater strenght, anticorrosion, service life, and improve performace”
Alloys allow a result that is greater than the sum of its parts. The better example of alloys? Teams. Soccer teams, company teams, couples.
Evolution requires a desire to never stop. To be relentless. To be flexible. Complacency will kill you. Evolution is a bitch.
“It’s not strength that survives but adaptability. Strength becomes rigidity. Real success becomes from being flexible enough to change”
Niche expert (specialist) or Generalist? I’m a big fan of niches, in fact is the name of my company, but both have the pros and cons.
“Once you own a niche you’re incredibly hard to dislodge. Your growth is capped, but as long as the environment remains stable, as long as there is a continued need for your invention, you have significantly less competition to deal with than the generalists”
“Specialists, have less of a daily struggle. Their day to day stress is lower. But as soon as the environment starts to change, the stress explodes. Being unable to adapt means death. Your niche disappears”
When no one needs encyclopedias to put on your bookshelf, there’s no place to go.
“We choose fight or flight when we think we have a chance to succeed. Freeze mode usually takes over when te accumulation of stressesors is so great that we can no longer really function. By freezing we hope to presserve the little life we have left. The drive for survival is deeply ingrained in our behavioral responses”
But there’s something more. For humans, surviving is not enough. We don’t want to just keep breathing. Animals make die/live choices. Humans need a meaning value.
“Replication is necessary but not sufficient for survival. The more you copy something, the more it weakens”
Imagine taking a picture, and then copying the picture, and then copying the copy of the picture. The quality progressively gets worse because each copy will pass on errors and introduce new ones.
And we already know the power of compounding. Compounding is king. The bad thing is that errors also compound. This is why closed systems, without external innovation and improvement, die in changing environments.
Isolate a group (country, civilisation) from the outside world a long time enough, and it will die. Isolate a reigning family only allowing marriage between them, and in a few generations, the compounding errors of genetics will create monsters.
Allow innovations and improvements from outside.
“An organism that cannot perform an important function alone fills this particular gap by using the physical body of another organism, who also benefits from the interaction”
It’s important to seek for companies or industries with whom we can partner for mutual benefit. That’s the collab economy.
Hierarchy is a core instinct. And status is a form of hierarchy. The story of fashion for example, can be read in part, as a chronicle of humans trying to establish and negotiate social hierarchies.
“What we wear helps us negotiate our relationships with the outside world and provide us with comfort and protection”
“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives”. Charlie Munger
Know more about Carles at www.carlescarrera.com
