Refind

The Power of Mental Models

Refind helps you get a little bit smarter every day. The most relevant links for you, every morning in your inbox. Start with this hand-curated series of 7 time-tested articles from around the web, and we’ll take it from there.

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mental models
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Intro
What’s inside?
Who is it for?

Mental models help us make sense of the world. They give us a frame of reference when we encounter a new situation, and thus help us reduce complexity when we have to make decisions. The more mental models you know, and can apply to a certain situation, the more likely you'll have a useful one to make better decisions. This Deep Dive gives you a general understanding of what mental models are, and introduces you to some of the most important ones that you can use right away.

  • Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (109… and 6 other articles
  • Average reading time: 7 minutes
  • Topics covered: learning, brain, decision making, better living, howto
  • Read or listen to articles
  • From sites like Farnam Street, Ness Labs, and more
  • You want to learn something new and are looking for a good, compact introduction.
  • You want to sharpen your skills on something you got into recently.
  • You want to catch up on a topic that has been in the news lately.
Day 1
Mental Models: How to Train Your Brain to Think in New Ways
James Clear
mental models, self improvement
Day 2
Learning From the Feynman Technique
medium.com
language, learning, mental models, self improvement, feynman, favorites
Day 4
How to evaluate the validity and reliability of your mental models
Ness Labs
better living, howto, mental models
Day 5
Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (109 Models Explained)
Farnam Street
mental models, psychology, brain, productivity, decision making, business
Day 7
A Lesson on Elementary Worldly Wisdom
Farnam Street
Level up!
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Glad to see you made it all the way through this Deep Dive. We hope you found it useful and can put some of the insights to good use in your own daily life.

How does it work?

Day 1
...
Day 7
Level up!

Deep Dives are carefully hand-curated series of time-tested articles and videos from around the web.

We’ll guide you through, one link per day, every morning in your inbox.

Deep Dives come in bites that are short enough to fit in your day...

...but add up to a satisfying learning experience.

A quick, and yet comprehensive introduction on mental models and how they help you think better.

The big overview, part 1. This list contains way more mental models than you'll be able to digest right now. Scroll through the list to get a «feel» for it, read about the ones that instantly sound interesting, and keep the list for reference.

Mental models are only useful if you pick the right one for the right situation. How do you know? That's what this article is about.

The big overview, part 2. Again, this list contains way more mental models than you'll be able to digest right now. Scroll through the list to get a «feel» for it, read about the ones that instantly sound interesting, and keep the list for reference.

Congratulations on completing this Deep Dive. Now the fun part begins: Start applying mental models in your daily life. You will soon realise: The more you practice, the easier it will be for you to find a fitting model for a situation at hand.


If you haven't saved them already, save the two big lists of mental models (from Farnam Street and Junto Investments). If you'd like to go deeper, or prefer books to go back to: Have a look at the Great Mental Models series.

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