No. 604 – November 24, 2024
Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in life and work. (Read the archives). Not subscribed? Learn more and sign up.
Tiny Thoughts
It’s true that determining the actual problem takes time, but it’s far quicker than solving the wrong one and starting over.
Smart people are uniquely vulnerable to mistaking complexity for insight.
An executive writes a ten-page memo that could be one. An engineer builds an intricate system when a simple one would perform better at half the cost. The consultant mesmerizes clients with frameworks that conceal rather than reveal. We attach prestige to what mystifies us. Complexity intoxicates both the creator and audience, drugging us with the illusion of wisdom.
Mastery isn’t making the simple complex—it’s finding the elegant simplicity that cuts through the complexity.
The difference between greatness and mediocrity isn’t in the spectacular moments but rather in avoiding critical errors.
Warren Buffett’s first rule of investing? Never lose money. His second rule? Never forget rule one. This isn’t clever wordplay – it’s the mathematics of success. A 50% loss demands a 100% gain to break even. Or look at elite athletes: while average quarterbacks mix brilliant throws with costly interceptions, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes protect the ball first.
Excellence isn’t about occasional brilliance – it’s about consistent execution.
Insights
Frank Ocean on not drawing attention to yourself:
“Work hard in silence. Let success be your noise.”
Michael Jordan’s response when asked if a fear of failure motivated him:
“I never feared about my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear. So you if you do the work, what are you fearing? You know what you’re capable of and what you’re not.”
Came across this quote from David Chapman on why learning mental models is a good idea:
“Learn from fields very different from your own. They each have ways of thinking that can be useful at surprising times. Just learning to think like an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a philosopher will beneficially stretch your mind.”
Mental Models
A mental model is a simplified explanation of how something works.
V1 | General Thinking Tools | Thought Experiment
Thought experiments are the sandbox of the mind, a place where we can play with ideas without constraints. They’re a way of exploring the implications of our theories, of testing the boundaries of our understanding. They offer a powerful tool for clarifying our thinking, revealing hidden assumptions, and showing us unintended consequences.
The power of thought experiments lies in their ability to create a simplified model of reality where we can test our ideas. In the real world, there are always confounding factors, messy details that obscure the core principles at work. However, in a thought experiment, we can strip away the noise and focus on the essence of the problem.
Thought experiments remind us that some of the most profound insights and innovations start with a simple question: What if?
— Source: The *NEW* Great Mental Models v1: General Thinking Concepts
Clear Thinking
This is one of my favorite passages from Clear Thinking:
“Each moment puts you in a better or worse position to handle the future. It’s that positioning that eventually makes life easier or harder …
A good position allows you to think rather than be forced by circumstances into a decision. One reason the best in the world make consistently good decisions is they rarely find themselves forced into a decision by circumstances.
You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them. Anyone looks like a genius when they’re in a good position, and even the smartest person looks like an idiot when they’re in a bad one.
The greatest aid to judgment is starting from a good position. The company with cash on the balance sheet and low debt has good options. When bad times come, and they always do, their options go from good to great. On the other hand, a company with no cash and high debt has nothing but bad options to choose from. Things quickly go from bad to worse.
[…]
What a lot of people miss is that ordinary moments determine your position, and your position determines your options. Clear thinking is the key to proper positioning, which is what allows you to master your circumstances rather than be mastered by them.
It doesn’t matter what position you find yourself in right now. What matters is whether you improve your position today.
Every ordinary moment is an opportunity to make the future easier or harder. It all depends on whether you’re thinking clearly.”
— Amazon (USA) currently has Clear Thinking at the lowest price I’ve ever seen. International readers, click here.
— Amazon also has The Great Mental Models Volume 1 for the lowest price I’ve seen. (International readers, click here).
Thanks for reading,
— Shane
P.S. The grace of ballerinas
P.P.S. All four books in The Great Mental Models are now available. The first three volumes have been revised, including all new conclusions to each model. The fourth version was never published before.