Practical Intelligence: How to Think Critically, Deconstruct Situations, Analyze Deeply, and Never Be Fooled (Clear Thinking and Fast Action Book 4) by Patrick King

Author:Patrick King [King, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: PKCS Media
Published: 2019-11-29T23:00:00+00:00

Models in Brief

Munger didn’t go into specifics about his own latticework of mental models he used to make decisions. That’s because his particular set of models wouldn’t necessarily work for anyone else but him. He provided some tips to identify what models you might want to consider, but he didn’t lead anyone down the path himself. That’s a journey only you can make.

But for the sake of explanation, here are a few examples of mental models so you have an idea of what they look like and how to break them down:

Think about secondary consequences. When you’re considering making a certain decision, think about the consequences the decision would have down the line—second, or third order outcomes, and further down the line if you can. If you are going to tip over a domino, think about the second and third dominoes to fall. They might not be the ones you intend. It’s easy to imagine how a course of action is going to affect the immediate situation, but only focusing on fixing the problem at hand could result in other problems arising.

So to choose the most appropriate solution, think of what will happen down the road should you elect to put it into effect. In other words, think longer-term and outside your immediate circle of concern. When you run situations through this mental model, you’ll find answers that are more beneficial overall rather than engaging in immediate gratification.

Satisficing. This word was introduced in 1956 as a combination of the words “satisfy” and “suffice.” The idea behind the mental model of satisficing is that in some situations, a perfect or optimal solution is impossible—no reasonable solution will fix every single problem that could use attention, and an “optimal” solution is either impossible or impractical.

You will simply waste time and energy searching for something that either doesn’t exist or doesn’t really make a difference. Do you need optimal peanut butter, or will most of them do? If you can take a step back and understand that you only need to achieve the goal of buying peanut butter, you can move on with your life. What appears to be “best” is largely subjective and nothing you will probably ever notice.

In satisficing, one retrains their focus on the most important or pivotal points that need to be addressed (not unlike the Pareto Principle), and then makes decisions that will satisfice in that context. Trying to come up with an exact and precise answer every single time is a needless waste of time and energy. When you run situations through this mental model, you’ll understand what your actual purpose is, what’s secondary, and what you can ignore completely.

Distinguish feeling or thinking. It’s easy to mistake emotions for thoughts. Both deal with a sense of conviction. But emotions are immediate responses to certain sensory stimuli that aren’t always controllable, whereas thoughts come from a standpoint of calculation and consideration. This harkens back to the discussion of System 1 and System 2 thinking.

In the feeling-vs.-thinking mental model, you try to instill an objective point of view as much as you can.

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