How do you use your list of Mental Models?

[netnet]

Here's a question:

 

How do you use your list of mental models?

 

Personally, I find I do not use them enough.  I'm thinking of doing a daily or weekly scan down my list.  In addition to looking through the list when confronted with major decisions or inflection points. My thinking is that I should probably combine this,  ie. daily look at a summary of a mental model and weekly scan down the whole list.

 

Lesser question, how did you derive you list?

 

I have my own compilation but I like both Farnamstreetblog (three cheers) and thinkmentalmodels.com

[amecham]

netnet,

 

My friend recently started the attached blog.  He's from academia and has little interest in investing - which is a good thing IMO.  I know he's reached out to C. Munger and others about incorporating some of Mungers ideas into the classroom.  His blog may be worth keeping on your radar.

 

http://icrossthink.blogspot.com/

 

Allan

[Guest deepValue]

A list of mental models is a foreign concept to me. I have always thought of mental models as accumulated knowledge/patterns from a variety of disciplines that may shed insight on a new problem. In other words, learn a lot so you can understand a lot. I don't think most people make it any more literal than that.

[rukawa]

I think mental models are relatively ubiquitous. The mind in a sense automatically uses them. The real problem is when you use the wrong mental model for a particular situation or fail to apply a mental model due to wrong contextual cues

[netnet]

A list of mental models is a foreign concept to me. I have always thought of mental models as accumulated knowledge/patterns from a variety of disciplines that may shed insight on a new problem. In other words, learn a lot so you can understand a lot. I don't think most people make it any more literal than that.

 

Listing mental model gets you past the availability bias--one model.  Gawande's Checklist Manifesto touches on the usefulness lists.  Checklist are not really models but habits of mind.

[berkshiremystery]

netnet,

 

My friend recently started the attached blog.  He's from academia and has little interest in investing - which is a good thing IMO.  I know he's reached out to C. Munger and others about incorporating some of Mungers ideas into the classroom.  His blog may be worth keeping on your radar.

 

http://icrossthink.blogspot.com/

 

Allan

 

amecham,...

 

maybe I tease your mind with some mental virus.  ;) Some interesting read might also be from Richard Brodie "Virus of The Mind: the New Science of the Meme". The book carefully builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Susan Blackmore & Douglas Hofstadter. Brodie's main accomplishments had been, dropping out of Harvard, joining Gates as his assistant, and writing the main code for Microsoft Word.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Virus-mind-New-Science-Meme/dp/B00396JZTE/

 

http://www.xpter.info/picture/free/Virus-of-the-Mind.jpg

 

http://www.memecentral.com/

http://www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viruses_of_the_Mind

 

 

 

 

[biaggio]

I think mental models and check list are useful to protect you against unforced errors.

 

-to protect you against errors caused by biases, emotional factors, and other irrational thinking.

 

-gets you to learn from the wisdom of others (better to learn from others mistakes)

 

- to get you to think about the decision/assessment you are about to make vs using intuition, gut feeling, anxiety/panic/greed/fear of missing out. As Kanheman explains in his book to think slow vs thinking fast

 

 

 

[JBird]

How do you use your list of mental models?

 

Lesser question, how did you derive your list?

 

You are asking really intelligent questions. I adopted the idea that learning the models would be useless unless I applied them to reality all the time; because of course, all skills attenuate through disuse.

 

I generated my list of models first by studying Charlie Munger's lessons, and by reading every book he's ever recommended. I also studied other sources like Farnam Street. Then I wrote down all the models that obviously had explanatory and predictive power. (This is such a simple idea)

 

Then I had to make the models easily accessible memory-wise, so I used the linking method and then created a memory palace for them.

 

When I'm making any kind of meaningful decision, I go through my checklist by walking through my memory palace. And of course the more I do it the easier it gets.

 

What this mental routine has done for me is perfectly ridiculous. I can never thank Charlie enough for the gift he's given me.

[jay21]

I have heard Charlie use the "mental model" phrase before, but I don't know if I ever grasped what he meant.  Does anyone have a link to where he gives a detailed explanation?  Or can someone give me examples of different mental models and how they are being used?

[infinitee00]

I have heard Charlie use the "mental model" phrase before, but I don't know if I ever grasped what he meant.  Does anyone have a link to where he gives a detailed explanation?  Or can someone give me examples of different mental models and how they are being used?

 

I am not aware of any resource where he lays down the mental models he uses ( maybe 'Poor Charlie's Almanack' but I haven't read it yet). However, he gave a brilliant speech at Harvard in 1995 entitled "Psychology of Human Misjudgement" where he goes into details about what he thinks are 24 types of human misjudgements based on some of the mental model he uses.

 

The audio and transcript for the speech can be found here

 

http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/01/charlie-munger-76-minute-lecture-on-psychology-of-human-misjudgement/

[LC]

How do you use your list of mental models?

 

Lesser question, how did you derive your list?

 

You are asking really intelligent questions. I adopted the idea that learning the models would be useless unless I applied them to reality all the time; because of course, all skills attenuate through disuse.

 

I generated my list of models first by studying Charlie Munger's lessons, and by reading every book he's ever recommended. I also studied other sources like Farnam Street. Then I wrote down all the models that obviously had explanatory and predictive power. (This is such a simple idea)

 

Then I had to make the models easily accessible memory-wise, so I used the linking method and then created a memory palace for them.

 

When I'm making any kind of meaningful decision, I go through my checklist by walking through my memory palace. And of course the more I do it the easier it gets.

 

What this mental routine has done for me is perfectly ridiculous. I can never thank Charlie enough for the gift he's given me.

 

Wow, that is quite impressive. Let me ask you, how difficult is it to implement that memory technique? I have tried it in the past and it never "stuck" with me. It makes such logical sense that I would like to implement it, and a list of mental models would be an excellent use of this memory technique!

[JBird]

For me, the beauty of it is that it requires far less time and effort than rote memory techniques. It does however require lots of creativity and imagination.

[netnet]

How do you use your list of mental models?

 

Lesser question, how did you derive your list?

 

You are asking really intelligent questions. I adopted the idea that learning the models would be useless unless I applied them to reality all the time; because of course, all skills attenuate through disuse.

 

I generated my list of models first by studying Charlie Munger's lessons, and by reading every book he's ever recommended. I also studied other sources like Farnam Street. Then I wrote down all the models that obviously had explanatory and predictive power. (This is such a simple idea)

 

Then I had to make the models easily accessible memory-wise, so I used the linking method and then created a memory palace for them.

 

When I'm making any kind of meaningful decision, I go through my checklist by walking through my memory palace. And of course the more I do it the easier it gets.

 

What this mental routine has done for me is perfectly ridiculous. I can never thank Charlie enough for the gift he's given me.

 

Wow, that's awesome!  That is a truly great idea.  Thanks

[maxprogram]

I have heard Charlie use the "mental model" phrase before, but I don't know if I ever grasped what he meant.  Does anyone have a link to where he gives a detailed explanation?  Or can someone give me examples of different mental models and how they are being used?

 

A mental model is simply a model you have about how something works. Everyone has and uses mental models about everything (and nobody's models are exactly the same, i.e. your mental model about value investing is different than anyone else on this boards). The key is to use a latticework of multiple models, from different disciplines, to make better decisions.

 

See: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/

[netnet]

I have heard Charlie use the "mental model" phrase before, but I don't know if I ever grasped what he meant.  Does anyone have a link to where he gives a detailed explanation?

 

Here is one of Munger's talks that was a revelation to me:

A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business

http://ycombinator.com/munger.html

 

He gave a subsequent talk at Stanford Law School in 1996 as I recall with a similar title.  I could not quickly find a link, but if you look for it yourself you will value it all the more ;)--aka the Ikea effect!!  It's also in Poor Charlie's Almanack.