Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models | Hacker News Reader

Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models

superthinking.com

400 pointsyegg89 comments

A few years ago I published a large list of mental models I find repeatedly useful (https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-use...), discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12040707.

I've spent my spare time since (day job is running DuckDuckGo) with my co-author (statistician, researcher, and wife!) turning that list into this book, which weaves the 300+ mental models into nine narrative thematic chapters, paired with 150+ illustrations. Here's the full list of models from the book (in order): https://superthinking.com/download/MentalModels.pdf

Happy to answer any questions about it and/or the process of getting this published. It's my second book (first is Traction).

Awesome! Thanks for posting. Just ordered it.

Thanks so much! Really appreciate it.

You wrote two books and you run DDG? Got any advice on balancing it all?

(also thanks for DDG!)

You're welcome. Sorry for being self-referential, but we really did put our best productivity advice in the book -- Chapter 3: Spend Your Time Wisely. Here are the "Key Takeaways" from that chapter (there is a little section at the end of each).

* Choose activities to work on based on their relevance to your north star.

* Focus your time on just one of these truly important activities at a time (no multitasking!), making it the top idea on your mind.

* Select between options based on opportunity cost models.

* Use the Pareto principle to find the 80/20 in any activity and increase your leverage at every turn.

* Recognize when you’ve hit diminishing returns and avoid negative returns.

* Use commitment and the default effect to avoid present bias, and periodic evaluations to avoid loss aversion and the sunk-cost fallacy.

* Look for shortcuts via existing design patterns, tools, or clever algorithms. Consider whether you can reframe the problem.

Awesome, thanks for the reply! Guess I'll make a point to read your book then :-)

> Consider whether you can reframe the problem.

This to me has been perhaps one of the most useful tool when I'm struggling with something. The fable of NASA's space pen [0] is good marker to invoke this.

[0] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/

How would you tackle multiple priorities/north stars? What if I want to be the best parent I can be and save enough for retirement? I can't put off being a parent until I have enough to retire on, nor can I wait to start saving for retirement until after I'm "done" being a parent.

* Use the Pareto principle to find the 80/20 in any activity and increase your leverage at every turn.

Stronger: I can't put being a parent on hold to write my book. Not if I already have kids. I can't put it on hold to build my career, or launch my startup. They need you today, not when your "north star" is done.

I have a feeling that this book is _the_ advice. It's literally in the subtitle: "Upgrade Your Reasoning and Make Better Decisions with Mental Models". I imagine mental models have a lot to do with managing and balancing one's life.

> I wish I had learned many of these years earlier. In fact, the proximate cause for posting this was so I could more effectively answer the question I frequently get from people I work with: “what should I learn next?” If you’re trying to be generally effective, my best advice is to start with the things on this list. [1]

[1] https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-use... by @yegg, the link he shared in his comment.

I've been waiting for the release! Just ordered. Congratulations on getting it out!

Thank you!

(statistician, researcher, and wife!) -> In that order?

No PDF for sale?

Sorry, it is published through Penguin, and they don't currently offer a PDF version.

Why not self publish? Given how well-known you are in your target market, you probably don't really need the marketing help from Penguin.

Simply because of the extra work involved. I did it once and know how much work that is :).

Congrats on completing another book!

Mental models seem to be a popular topic to write about in the last few years. As someone that has already devoured a lot of content about this, is there a good reason to pick up your book if I don't necessarily want to make the time to read more on the topic?

Thanks! Here are some reasons why I think it is worth picking up even if you've read a lot on mental models already:

* The mental model community likes to quote Charlie Munger saying "80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly-wise person" and yet no one tries to systematically lists out all these models. This book attempts to do that.

* We spent most of our time finding relatable examples outside the discipline in which a given mental model arises, which is why they are supposed to be useful. That is, we don't just tell you what it is, we try to tell you why it is generally useful in strategic decision making and how you might apply it personally and professionally.

* We dropped the normal method of grouping models by discipline, and instead grouped them by theme, weaving models from different disciplines together around unintended consequences, decision models, etc. (nine chapters).

* We commissioned and/or found illustrations/comics (150+ in total) to help better explain and remember the models, as well as make it more fun to consume!

Actually, in the talk where Munger said that, he listed most of the 80 or 90. He didn't go into depth on any of them, but he listed them.

Yes. I was recommended Page's

"The Model Thinker" https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know/dp/04650...

when this YC topic popped up. Page's book is sort of a reference book, something you use periodically rather than a beginning-to-end read.

But it does seem that "models" are all the rage currently.

The content of these books is essentially classical operations research (OR), first was used by the Allies in World War II in attempts to optimize military cost-effectiveness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research

This is awesome, thanks. It would be cool to gamify these mental models in an app to help train. If this has been done or gets done, please post :)

Thats a really good idea. Even providing them as an Anki deck would be helpful.

disclaimer (not mine): https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/669613720

Thanks, nice one. Have you used this, if so did you have any feedback?

I liked traction, with its focus on try all these things, one may get you to the next level, then try some others. Does this book take the same approach?

Yes, it is a similar approach in terms of trying to be comprehensive.

Looks great! and something I'm more or less obsessed with myself (abstractions of any kind, really). Will definitely buy one!

Somewhat OT, but I'm confused by the pricing on Amazon: Hardcover is $19.60 (20 used from 22.65, and 34 new from $14.00), paperback $28.92 (2 used from $34.32), Kindle 23.27, and more.

Maybe I'm not used to Amazon, but this seems weird. How come so many used copies of a new book for example. And the prices are all over the place. Has something gone awry?

Kindle says $5 for me.

Oh man we're being played by the AWS algorithm. This is what I see (not signed in, clean browser with no cookies).

    Kindle   $14.99
    Hardcover  $19.60
    Paperback  $24.87

I am from India, maybe that plays into it.

Somehow I don’t find a Kindle edition. Did you find an alternate product page?

This is the link I get (after deobfuscation), which has Kindle at $14.99 (along with the peculiar used > new pricing):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525533583/ref=as_li_tl?ie...

Hey, for an Audible user, any reason you would recommend the book over the audiobook?

I come back to your article often; a narrative-driven book sounds perfect. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

If I have any questions or feedback while reading and want to reach out, which contact method would you prefer? I only see Signal on your page and I wouldn't want to be rude if that is a personal number.

Thank you for creating this excellent resource.

I've struggled to internalize many concepts simply due to the format it's written in. Please consider making them into flashcards so they are easier to read daily

e.g. http://getmentalnotes.com

Wow they made it into a cube?! http://www.poetpainter.com/thoughts/article/introducing-the-...

I am on the first chapter and one thing which always bothered me was the example in first principles thinking. Farnam Street did and so did you in the book.

Tesla and Musk, in spite of their success, might not be the best of examples. While the material breakdown cost give us an elemental view of what goes in - the actual cost is on R&D. Putting together the $80 material while ensuring the costs are down is something which might be doable only with huge amount of money. I don't see how it helps average Joe.

More of a meta comment than a criticism: there's been a real explosion in interest in mental models this last decade. Mental models have become top of mind in the SV community (and its associated thought leaders), from Farnham Street, Naval, Tim Ferriss, Patrick Collison and many others regularly talking about them and their creators such as Buffet / Munger / Kahneman etc.

What's happening here? Is there some kind of fundamental set of truths we have stumbled upon that make these models timeless and universally useful, or are we just at the top of the hype cycle? Are there cons to internalizing these models, or is this always-relevant wisdom that should be imparted upon all of humanity?

One could also wonder if there's anything new at all to these mental models, or if these have always been universally valid and applicable principles that the community has repackaged in a more polished and condensed format.

Disclaimer: I love this whole subject and immediately bought the book, BUT I'm also somewhat wary of everybody drinking the same koolaid, including myself. Are these truly valuable, or are they purely fashionable, and so people are cargo culting famous SV personalities? i.e. is this the wisdom version of Jack Dorsey meditating and fasting?

I share the same concerns. I also love the subject and will buy the book, but I've come to notice that a lot of what's written about mental models is shallow, generic and/or not really actionable.

My view on why they attract me: I’m technically inclined. Loved maths and physics during school and college, where one basic, but fundamentally powerful idea, enabled to solve so many problems. It seemed knowledge distilled. You just apply and combine and operate, and boom: The Right Answer.

Then picked a business book, where one idea is iterated for 100 pages. Looking it from different angles, explaining, examples, anecdotes. I’ll-tell-you-something-I’m-doing-it-I-told-you recursive sandwiches. “By the end of this book” nonsense. It seems facile, it does not demand pencil-and-paper work like in maths. Also, one idea per book? Wasted time.

Finally a book comes that just lists ideas. Not very detailed. Seem very fundamental. It reminds a little bit of a maths cheatsheet, the minimal expression of the Maxwell equations that will solve all business issues. It sounds exciting!

But as others noted: if you cannot work them, exercise them, and think formally through implications, it is cargo culting from maths. At least to an extent.

(Sorry for the style im in my mobile)

The world isn't going to fit perfectly into mental models, it's much more complex, variable, and random. "The Bed of Procrustes" comes to mind: The mythical innkeeper that wanted his guests to fit perfectly into their bed, so he would either stretch the guests or chop off limbs to make them fit.

IMO the maps don't always match the terrain, but the maps are worth studying.

I'm going to buy the book as I found Traction super useful, and I'd like to see their take on popular mental models. But I'm keeping in mind the limits of models. (I like a good dose of Nassim Nicholas Taleb for this)

Don't you think that by trading off complexity of the models you use general usefulness? For example, the 80-20 principle is not about the numbers 80 and 20, but it is just an x-y principle where 80 and 20 are areas of a (particular) curve. If you teach it as "the 80-20 principle" then maybe at best it's a mnemonic for some people in productivity.

I'm sorry, but I'm not a fan of productivity tools based on improperly formulated "rules" or "hints".

HNs anti-procrastinator is more precise and useful to me.

I have never heard of "HNs anti-procrastinator" - can you point me somewhere?

It is in your profile: noprocrast, maxvisit, minaway

Is that what they call "self documenting"?

I'm still confused. Can you elaborate.

Your profile is https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=therealdrag0. When you, the owner of that profile, visits it, you will see many settings. Among them are noprocrast (boolean), maxvisit (number of minutes), and minaway (number of minutes). When noprocrast is set to yes, Hacker News will refuse to load if you visit it too much, to help you avoid procrastination.

For the details of what each of those three settings means, visit https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814695.

I meant: "lose general usefulness"; i.e., lose generality.

Also, "HN's".

Ordered the book (Yiikes, I had to use Amazon because of you as it seems the only online store to deliver the hard copy in Europe. Usually, I refuse to use this service as I'm totally against the business model of this company).

The great thing about HN is that it let me thanks you for DDG!

Book Depository is always a good option for deliveries outside US.

I had pre-purchased it, and just got it on my Kobo.

I know that Amazon offers financial incentive for people publishing electronic version on kindle only, to the point that a series one of my kid was reading on her e-reader restricted the last few books to the kindle (To be fair we emailed the author and she sent pdf copies of the ramining books for free). Thanks for making your book available beyond and outside the Amazon empire!

This looks really awesome I've always been curious of mental models so I just ordered a copy from Amazon. Also Gabriel, kudos to your work and DDG, I'm right near DDG headquarters and it's nice to know things like DDG are being created in my area.

Thanks!

Congrats on the new book. How come the ebook (Kindle) is more expensive than the physical one? With higher commissions (and no printing or logistics costs) for the ebook, I'd expect the other way around.

I'm not sure -- it's being set by the publisher, Penguin Portfolio (their business imprint).

Quite often ebooks (a "luxury" digital product) are taxed at full rate, whereas physical books are taxed at a lower educational rate, so that explains some of the difference.

For me, on Amazon, I see the ebook as $14.99, hardcover as $19.60 and paperback as $24.87.

I'm surprised the hardcover is cheaper than the paperback.

It's $5 for me. Can you confirm if the price has been updated since you posted or maybe it's because I am from India.

Pre-ordered paperback for approx $8 from India

Books are value priced.

Ebooks are a greater value to the user, so they're priced higher. Manufacturing costs are irrelevant.

Just bought it. Anybody that can build a successful search engine on perl probably has something useful to say. :)

If you want to increase sales you should get some reviews up there on Amazon. If you have a mailing list you can offer a limited number of free private ebooks to beta readers and encourage recipients to leave an honest review. That's standard practice on Amazon. The only stipulation is the review has to be voluntary and honest. Ideally you'd already have that in place on launch day but it's not too late.

Any chance it'll be available for sale in a store that includes a digital copy with a physical purchase?

e.g. I'd love to grab a hardcover copy with an included MOBI/PDF/EPUB digital edition.

Doubtful. It's published by Penguin, and I don't think they do this.

Somebody should tell this guy lol https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19895407

Done[1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19896707

The "preview" button at the top of the page goes to a form to enter my email for "book updates".

I'd be interested in reading a sample, does the book updates form provide one?

There is a sample on the Amazon page.

Thank you for this - long overdue in my opinion and I wholeheartedly agree this should be taught in schools. Just ordered a copy on Apple Books : )

Riding on the coattails of the mental models zeitgeist, here's my newsletter if anyone's interested: https://alexpetralia.github.io/newsletters

(Caveat: it's far less organized and frankly, worse)

Looks great and I can't wait to read it!

Another good book in this area, more focused on math perhaps (haven't read "Super thinking" yet) is George Polya's classic "How to Solve it".

A short book I found super handy and have re read a few times.

Your cover art on downpour doesn’t have a picture FYI.

Thanks for writing it, ordering soon. Just deciding between the audio and the paper

Currently not available in AU kindle store?

I see at https://www.amazon.com.au/Super-Thinking-Upgrade-Reasoning-D...

Great work. Just ordered. Thanks for putting this together. I saw Charlie Munger and was sold.

Not available on book depository?

https://www.bookdepository.com/Super-Thinking-Gabriel-Weinbe... ?

got a copy. Look forward to it!

Quoting "Art of the Deal" and extolling Trump's virtues as a dealmaker didn't really sway me. Regretting this purchase.

Me: CTRL+faudio

Firefox: 0/0

Me: Damn

I completely stopped reading books and only listen to books these days.

Audible version here: https://www.amazon.com/Super-Thinking-Book-Mental-Models/dp/...

Same here, mostly. Was about to get hard copy but then notice audiobook is actually listed on Amazon product page.

Super Thinking is also available on Scribd. All you can eat audio books similar to Netflix. No tokens to spend. I can't say enough about this tool for my daily commute. I love Scribd.

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