Chapter 1 - Mental Models Flashcards
What are First Principles?
First-principles are the fundamentals, the key elements and foundation on which your conclusions rest—the key ingredients in a recipe…
What is de-risking?
testing your assumptions in the real world, There is risk that one or more of your assumptions are untrue, and so the conclusions you reach could also be false. The most important assumptions to de-risk first are the ones that are necessary conditions for success and that you are most uncertain about.
What is minimum viable product?
The MVP is the product you are developing with just enough features, the minimum amount, to be feasibly, or viably tested by real people.
What is Ockham’s razor?
the simplest explanation is most likely to be true. When you encounter competing explanations, you probably want to choose the simplest one to investigate first.
What is framing?
Framing refers to the way present a situation or explanation. its how you frame things to help others best understand your perspective.
What is nudging?
You can be nudged in a direction by a subtle word choice or other environmental cues. Retail stores and websites nudge you to purchase certain products by placing them where they are easier to see.
What is anchoring?
The tendency to rely too heavily on first impressions when making decisions. You get anchored to the first piece of framing information you encounter.
Why is the Availability Bias?
availability bias occurs when a bias , or distortion, creeps into your objective view of reality thanks to information recently made available to you. Availability bias can easily emerge from high media coverage of a topic. Availability bias stems from overreliance on your recent experiences within your frame of reference, at the expense of the big picture.
What is the third story?
the third story , is the story that a third , impartial observer would recount. Forcing yourself to think as an impartial observer can help you in any conflict situation, including difficult business negotiations and personal disagreements.
most respectful interpre tation , or MRI
In any situation, you can explain a person’s behavior in many ways. MRI asks you to you interpret the other parties’ actions in the most respectful way possible. It’s giving people the benefit of the doubt
What is hanlon’s razor
never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness. the simplest explanation is usually that they took the path of least resistance. That is, they carelessly created the negative outcome; they did not cause the outcome out of malice.
What is fundamental attribution error?
attributing others’ behaviors to their internal, or fundamental , motivations rather than external factors. whenever you think someone was mean because they are mean rather than thinking they were just having a bad day. You of course tend to view your own behavior in the opposite way.
What is the just world hypothesis?
It can be challenging to acknowledge that a good portion of your success stems from luck. Many people instead choose to believe that the world is completely fair, orderly, and predictable.
What is learned helplessness?
Learned helplessness describes the tendency to stop trying to escape difficult situations because we have gotten used to difficult conditions over time. Someone learns that they are helpless to control their circumstances, so they give up trying to change them.
confirmation bias
The human tendency to gather and interpret new information in a biased way to confirm preexisting beliefs.
What is Thinking Grey?
Thinking grey is to not form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts.
What is the Devil’s advocate position?
Devil’s advocate means taking up an opposing side of an argument, even if it is one you don’t agree with. One approach is to force yourself literally to write down different cases for a given decision or appoint different members in a group to do so. Another, more effective approach is to proactively include people in a decision-making process who are known to hold opposing viewpoints.
What is the proximate cause and root cause?
The proximate cause is the thing that immediately caused it to happen
The root cause , by contrast, is what you might call the real reason something happened.
What is a postmortem?
A postmortem refers to any examination of a prior situation to understand what happened and how it could go better next time. One technique commonly used in postmortems is called 5 Whys , where you keep asking the question “Why did that happen?” until you reach the root causes.
