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…
Articles
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…
Thinking in Bets: How to Make Decisions Like a Poker Player
Thinking in bets is a decision-making framework developed by former professional poker player Annie Duke. In this article, you’ll find two real-life examples of how people —mistakenly— evaluate decisions based on their outcomes. Then, you’ll see why it’s wrong and how to take luck into consideration by thinking like a poker player. Bad decision, good…
Mental Model Examples (50+) That Will Make You More Successful
In this article, you’ll find more than 50 mental model examples that will make you understand the world and human nature better. So you can become more successful in business and life. What is a Mental Model? A mental model is your thought process to explain how something works. Think about it. Probably when you…
Commitment Bias: How To Avoid and Benefit From It
Why is ending a long relationship so hard?Even if you know it’s not good for you anymore, it’s still difficult to end it.The answer is commitment.Your friends know your partner, you have photos on Instagram together and you have shared how happy you were.So the imaginary stakes of a breakup are high.Because your mind tries to be consistent with your…
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…
Goodhart’s Law: Soviet Nail Factories & The Power of Incentives
The Soviet Union had a shortage of nails during Lenin’s time. To increase production, his government started giving bonuses to the factories for the number of nails they produce. After hearing about the bonus, the factories reduced the size of the nails to produce as many nails as possible. In the end, they met the targets and…
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…
