Mental Models (Index)
All of my articles on different mental models can be found on this link. Below is my personal pick that includes my writing on mental models, sorted by topics.
Thought Leadership
I’ve put together a separate page that houses all of the articles I wrote on thought leadership mental models, including:
The Blockbuster Model
Multi-Perspectile Thinking
Modern Thought Leader
The Thought Leader Flywheel
6D Thinking
You can check the page and articles here.
Super Thinking
8 Things That Self-Made Billionaires Do Differently. Is there some unique way of thinking that gives self-made billionaire entrepreneurs an edge?
6D Thinking: Bezos, Musk, & Buffett Learn Faster And Better Because They See Learning Differently. Over my last 8 years of writing about history’s most influential innovators and successful entrepreneurs and Nobel Laureates, I’ve realized that they don’t just work harder or do more productivity hacks. They actually inhabit a different paradigm of reality that’s hard to see. The big clue is that many of their core work habits go completely against conventional wisdom…
Studies Show That People Who Have High “Integrative Complexity” Are More Likely To Be Successful. A self-made billionaire studied Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. An eminent researcher interviewed Nobel Laureates. They each came to the same conclusion.
Dialectical Thinking: How To Develop World-Changing Ideas, According To Research. One of the most fundamental things a thought leader does is come up with rare and valuable ideas: Said differently, thought leaders need to think differently and better than others in order to succeed. The question we contemplate in this article is: how do you do this?
If you want to dive into mental models on super thinking I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!
Monetizing Knowledge
Why Paid Newsletters Are The #1 Way To Monetize Your Knowledge. Over the last 20 years, I’ve experimented with 7 different ways to monetize my knowledge, and I’ve earned 6-7 figures per year with each approach. Newsletters are the best way for people who love learning to get paid to learn.
Brutal Truth: It Takes Years To Become A $100k Thought Leader Working Part-Time (Unless You're Lucky). This post is for all of the people who are wondering what’s actually required to be a full-time thought leader earning $100,000+ a year while impacting thousands of people.
Tutorial: How To Become A 6-Figure Curator In One Year. To make six figures as a curator in a year, you just need 833 subscribers paying you $10/month. That's just 2.3 new subscriber per day. Here's how to get started...
If you want to dive into mental models on monetizing knowledge I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!
Success
If You Want To Be Massively Successful, Do NOT Set Ambitious Goals, According To Studies. This is why Steve Jobs said “You can’t connect the dots looking forward”…
The No. 1 Predictor Of Career Success According To Network Science. Do you ever have moments where you hear something so compelling that you need to know more, yet so crazy that you’d have to let go of some of your core beliefs in order to accept the idea?
If you want to dive into mental models on success I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!
10,000-Experiment Rule
Forget The 10,000-Hour Rule; Edison, Bezos, & Zuckerberg Follow The 10,000-Experiment Rule. Deliberate experimentation is more important than deliberate practice in a rapidly changing world.
Thomas Edison, Salvador Dali, And A Navy SEAL All Follow The 20% Rule. They spend 20% of their time on activities of experiments and skill-building.
Why Successful People Spend 10 Hours A Week On “Compound Time”. Warren Buffett, Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey all do this one thing outside their to-do-lists every day.
If you want to dive into mental models on entrepreneurship I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!
Personal Growth
So Passionate You Never Stop Improving: The Secret Behind the Success Of Asimov, Jobs, Seinfeld, Oprah, Buffett, Newton, And All The Greats. The top performers in the history of art, science, entrepreneurship, and leadership all swear by the power of Infinite Devotion.
Harvard Researcher Provides The Best Explainer Of The Best "Hidden" Mental Model. The End Of History Illusion from Harvard researcher Daniel Gilbert changed my life. So much so that I consider it one of the top 5 mental models worth learning.
The Viktor Frankl Achievement Paradox Silently Sabotages People's Lives. This video lesson with psychotherapist Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) beautifully captures one of his central ideas that's completely under-appreciated today.
A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. There are a surprisingly large number of perspectives different people can take on anything. Not only that, as an individual there are a surprisingly large number of perspectives we can take moment to moment. The goal of a thought leader is to see certain things differently and better on a dimension that is important to the people that follow us.
If you want to dive into mental models on personal growth I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!