Mental Model Cheatsheet

1. Emphasize Questions over Answers
2. Question and Replace the Assumptions
3. Not static, but changing. X is a process
4. Acceptance
   1. As dissolving conflict
   2. As the path to peace
   3. Fatalism / Inevitability
      1. Ex., We shall all die someday
      2. Ex., Eventually, it shall all come to pass
5. Category Error / Grammar Violations
   1. I am fluidity.
   2. Faith is Love
   3. She has destroyed conscience.
6. Paradox / Contradiction (Must both be x and not be x)
7. Harmony
8. Metaphor standing in for argument
9. Narrative standing in for argument
10. Patience
    1. Wait for understanding to take action
11. Alignment
    1. As a solution to internal conflict
12. Integration
    1. De-escalation of internal conflict
    2. As opposed to willpower, which escalates internal conflict
13. Peace, Calm, Serenity
14. Awareness
    1. Presence
15. The Mind
    1. The Mind to The Mind
16. Conscience, Consciousness
17. Reflection
18. Deep / Depth / Layers
19. Balance
    1. Force / Willpower / Effort / Discipline vs. Alignment / Integration / Harmony
    2. Light vs. Darkness
    3. Yin vs. Yang
    4. Chaos vs. Order
20. Dichotomy
    1. It is not x, but y
    2. Your x is not my y
    3. Do not to x, but do y
    4. Learn how to x without x
       1. Ex., Learn without learning, sleep without sleeping, strike without striking
21. Fluidity
22. Space Between
    1. Music is the space between the notes
    2. Space between the words I’m saying
23. Giving of agency to to the non-agentic
    1. What do the tears understand?
    2. What does circling want?
    3. Meditations on moloch
    4. Memetics

Thinking fast and slow – Daniel Kahneman. We spend most of the time in System 1: fast, automatic, emotional, stereotypical, subconscious. System 2 (slow, analytical, logical, calculating, conscious) requires more effort and activating it consumes more energy.

GOFER model of decision making:

• Goals
• Options
• Facts
• Effects
• Review

DECIDE model (designed for managers in health care):

• Defining the problem
• Establishing the criteria
• Considering all the alternatives
• Identifying the best alternative
• Developing and implementing an action plan
• Establishing and monitoring the solution

Scientific model:

• Identify the decision you want to make
• Gather the information necessary for the decision
• Identify various alternatives
• Weigh and assess the evidence associated with the alternatives
• Make a selection between the alternatives
• Act per the decision made
• Review the decision and its significance – is there a need for a new decision?

People who “live in the moment” are more likely to make decisions based on their current emotional state. People who live in the past or future are more likely to make decisions based on a similar, previously experienced emotion or an imagined potential emotion.

Pfister and Bohm’s (2008) classification based on various roles that reflect emotions in decision making:

• Providing information (positive or negative emotions; often arise directly from the options being considered)
• Improving speed (emotions that encourage fast decision making; often triggered by ate or fear)
• Assessing relevance (emotions that help decide whether the decision is relevant; e.g. regret or disappointment)
• Enhancing commitment (emotions that involve moral sentiments and the sense of community; such as guilt or love

Reading, learning and concentration is most efficient in 25 minute cycles.