Around 2003 I came across Charlie Munger’s 1995 speech, The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, which introduced me to how behavioral economics can be applied in business and investing. More profoundly, though, it opened my mind to the power of seeking out and applying mental models across a wide array of disciplines.
A mental model is just a concept you can use to help try to explain things (e.g.Hanlon’s Razor — “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness.”). There are tens of thousands of mental models, and every discipline has their own set that you can learn through coursework, mentorship, or first-hand experience.
There is a much smaller set of concepts, however, that come up repeatedly in day-to-day decision making, problem solving, and truth seeking. As Munger says, “80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly‑wise person.”
a16z Podcast: How to Be Original and Make Big Ideas Happen
Successful Originals choose when to present different realities.
Meridith was needed a transducer to create a prototype for wireless power. She learned to reveal her full “why” until after she has given the specs for the how.
Original ideas sometimes seem “insane” to others so they have to be selectively developed.
Elon Must: create a rocket, then consider Mars.
Elon wanted to hire skeptical optimists.
Originalists have less expertise than their peers. They have expertise outside their fields.
- Einstein was new to physics. Einsteins said relativity was a musical idea.
- Galileo wouldn’t have discovered mountains on mars without art.