I did not realize I needed a miniature Boeing 747 in my life but I now know that I do. I could get it painted with the UPS logo for the investing cabinet which, I suppose, would need to be renamed the investing hangar. (Aaron and I don’t hold any meaningful stake in United Parcel…
I’m going to regret that title tomorrow. I know it. Two of the books I’ve been meaning to delve into sometime this year are about evolutionary biology; how the incentives that lead to reproductive and social success (which itself is a facilitator of reproductive success) shape everything from our government institutions to the popularity of…
After writing about using words to your advantage in life and business, I began thinking of one of my all-time favorite mental models. It comes from legendary marketing psychologist Clotaire Rapaille, who wrote about it in his treatise “The Culture Code“. Before we get into that, let me say that Dr. Clotaire Rapaille caught my attention so…
Words and phrases are interesting things. Each represents a package of ideas and associations, instantly unwrapped the moment we encounter them. If I say, “She stood in a cold, dark, damp basement on a winter day, with only a bit of gray, overcast sky visible through small windows around the perimeter; the rhythm of ice rain hitting…
If you need something to brighten up your day (or make you feel despondent depending on how you look at it), this is living proof that all you have to do to be successful in life is give people what they want at a price that is higher than the cost it takes you to deliver it to them, with sufficient margins for risk, capital tie-up, and opportunity cost. You can literally fail 3rd grade science and, if you satisfy a want, make six, seven, or even eight figures a year. The system we have now forgives a lot of shortcomings if you prove useful in other areas.
Mental Model: Intergenerational Transmission and What It Has to Do With Adrian Peterson Beating His Child A huge percentage of the people in this community are fans of the mental model concept – ideas, like tools, that can be used to analyze, study, and understand both why and how something is happening – made popular by Charles…
In 1912, one of Sweden’s greatest inventors, physicist Gustaf Dalén, was blinded during an accident involving pressure containment for his gas accumulators. He had created a device for use in unmanned lighthouses. This device lit itself at night and extinguished in the morning, improving marine safety, thereby saving countless lives and immeasurable property. Despite the setback of…
Two barred owls have moved into the trees behind the house and have been hanging out for a few weeks. They tend to fly together and one likes to stare into the windows, watching us inquisitively.
Mental Model: Expression Contagion Whether you are a business leader, running a non-profit, or even a weekday book club, one of the most dangerous assumptions you can make as a decision maker is believing that people implicitly agree with you. A lot of folks mistake lack of opposition for consent or affirmation when that is…
Whether identifying changes in public policy that could do exponential good or revealing internal assumptions about the way the world works, mental models are the best construct I’ve ever come across to categorize, analyze, study, document, and reflect upon the universe. Yesterday, The Washington Post published an example of cognitive bias when it detailed how how subconscious beliefs can…
