📄 Mental Models

“The phrase ‘mental model’ is an overarching term for any sort of concept, framework, or worldview that you carry around in your mind.”
_{—James Clear}

According to bestselling author James Clear, mental models:

• help you understand life

• guide your perception and behavior

• are imperfect, but useful

“The best mental models are the ideas with the most utility.” —James Clear

Through his work, Clear has sorted through more than 1,000 mental models and distilled them into a short list of the 45 most important mental models used in economics, psychology, thinking, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and mathematics.

If this piqued your interest, explore his list of the most useful mental models for daily life:

Looking for books on this topic?

The 4 best books about mental models according to James Clear:

• Seeking Wisdom by Peter Bevelin

• Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charles Munger

• The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

Want more? Here’s his full list of the best business books.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Over the last two decades as a strategy consultant, I helped hundreds of organizations grow their business and leaders.

My biggest takeaway? Successful strategies are not complex. They’re often the result of a team rallying around a simple concept or framework (e.g., mental model).

The truth? You don’t always need an expensive consultant or a fancy playbook.

Ambitious executives need:

• The right idea at the right time to inspire their leaders

• Simple, proven frameworks to guide their teams

That’s why I’m building an archive of proven frameworks and curated inspiration to help leaders tackle their most critical business challenges.

If this sounds useful, reply to this email and I’ll give you early access to the archive I’m building.

Bonus: Let me know a business challenge you’re facing, and I’ll handpick ideas and frameworks specific to your need.

As always, thanks for getting slightly smarter with us.

Scott