RICE Scores: A Simple Method For Project Prioritization

“This is done, what’s next?” That’s what you ask yourself after finishing a project. It seems trivial, but it’s the most important question that defines your results over the long term. Why? Well, most people believe productivity is doing a lot. But that’s an illusion. Real productivity comes from doing the work that brings you the best results. So it’s…

Force Field Analysis: Make Big Changes Easier (With Examples)

What is Force Field Analysis Force Field Analysis is a strategic analysis and decision-making method developed by Kurt Lewin. In this article, you’ll find two personal examples to see how you can use Force Field Analysis in your life. Every decision requires a change. Think about it. If you decide to gain muscle; you have…

Nassim Taleb’s Optionality: Unlimited Gains With Limited Costs

Optionality is a mental model to make decisions that create possible unlimited gains with limited costs. Nassim Taleb explains the importance of optionality in his book Antifragile. In this article, you’ll find a short story to see how optionality works and then three ways to increase optionality in your life. Is it possible to turn…

Think Laterally: Apple’s Ad Masterpiece and How to Think “Different”

Lateral thinking is a mental model to find creative solutions to complex problems. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple to revive the company from the ashes. And they wanted a new campaign to announce Apple was back. Apple’s competitor IBM’s slogan was “Think.” So as a response, the ad agency came up with the famous…

Luck Surface Area: How to Get Lucky In Business

Luck surface area is a mental model that explains it’s possible to increase your chances of getting lucky in business. If there were a magic potion that made people lucky, it would be expensive. But people would still buy it. After all, everybody wants to get lucky. Now, since we don’t have such a potion, are there other…

Personal SWOT Analysis: How To Analyze Your Life Like A CEO

What is Personal SWOT Analysis Personal SWOT Analysis is a framework to analyze your situation in life to make better long-term decisions. Think about it. You’re a one-person company. You have: And if your life resembles a company, it’d make sense to manage your life like a CEO, right? Of course. Now, executives use a…

Hindsight Bias Meaning, Examples, and How to Avoid It

Hindsight bias is a fallacy where people feel they knew how things would turn out after the events occurred. Take yourself back to December 2019. A new decade is about to start. Who was expecting a pandemic that’d keep us under lockdown and change how we live for years? Who was expecting a war in…

10x instead of 10% – Exponential Thinking

10% faster, 15% more, 5% less… Our brains think incrementally by default. That’s why many people focus on making things slightly better. You can see it every day. Hiring 10 more employees, spending $10k more on ads, opening one more shop… And the best-case scenario, they get what they planned for: an incremental improvement. But…

Parkinson’s Law Meaning, Examples, and How to Overcome It

Parkinson’s Law means that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Imagine you have two weeks to complete a project.  How likely would you deliver the task earlier than the deadline? If your answer is not likely, you’re not alone. Because even if the project with a two-week deadline could be finished in three…

Via Negativa: Steve Jobs’ Favorite Mental Model For Problem-Solving

Via negativa is a mental model that looks for solutions not through addition, but through subtraction. Steve Jobs loved cutting things out. When he returned to Apple as CEO, before creating any new product, he killed dozens of existing products. And focused the company on what it does best. Later on, he made one of the…