
Ask HN: Which books teach mental models? - wintercarver
Read the piece by Mutaschak[1] yesterday and found myself agreeing with components of the piece but distinctly feeling that some well-crafted books take a more active role in conveying and teaching mental models than simply summarized facts (which can be done well, but is subject to being forgotten).<p>The question, then, is what books effectively introduced a new mental model or perspective?<p>Two recent examples from my own reading, non-fiction and fiction:<p>Loonshots (Bahcall) - model &amp; &quot;rules&quot; for structure of innovation in orgs is introduced, discussed from various perspectives, examples given, summarized in text, repeated.<p>Overstory (Powers) - character stories all reinforce the perspective of an alternative relationship with trees and plants, the giant ecosystem and systems thinking.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;andymatuschak.org&#x2F;books&#x2F;
======
schuetze
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows

Once you start looking for positive and negative feedback loops in the world
around you, it's hard to stop. In particular, Meadow's book is great because
it also goes beyond +/\- loops in isolation, and shows more complicated
patterns, such as eroding goal patterns and traps that often cause public
policy interventions to fail.

~~~
freddieoduks
+1 I just recently read this book and i was met with gem after gem. Also made
me start looking at the world in terms of feedback loops, is it a balancing,
goal-seeking or reinforcing feedback loop? How tight are these feedback loops?
etc. Definitely a must read!

~~~
zsam
which book?

~~~
zsam
I didn't get the name of the book

~~~
Rainymood
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows

------
tlb
There are many good recommendations here, but I’d add that reading books about
mental models is worth 10%, while practice thinking about real situations is
90%.

To get practice, you can’t just sit and scratch your chin. You have to make a
predction, write it down, then see how real life played out a few years down
the road. It helps to write down predictions you considered but rejected and
why.

~~~
douglaswlance
That sounds like quite possibly the least effective method of learning.

There are people out there who have done all that work for you. All you have
to do is pick up a book, learn their models, then stand on their shoulders as
you develop your own.

~~~
zeroxfe
> That sounds like quite possibly the least effective method of learning.

It maybe less efficient, but in my experience, practice has consistently been
the most effective way to learn something.

If you're looking for efficient, then you'd want a well-structured mix of
theory and practice.

> All you have to do is pick up a book, learn their models, then stand on
> their shoulders as you develop your own.

Rarely does this work for any complex topic. I can't imagine learning math, or
languages, or coding by simply picking up books. IMO, these models are very
similar -- they have a ton of depth that can't be internalized without
practice.

------
brianbreslin
If you haven't seen it, this is one of the best resources on the subject:
[https://fs.blog/mental-models/](https://fs.blog/mental-models/) Farnham
Street blog has a TON of fascinating articles.

~~~
DEADBEEFC0FFEE
There real challenge is remembering them, and determining which to use and
investing the time to use them.

~~~
brianbreslin
right, but i would say do a superficial pass through of all of them and then
study more the ones that FEEL logical. The ones that work best with your
existing logic will likely serve you most.

------
prennert
I am reading The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge at the moment.

It is a fantastic book that came out in the 90s and was updated in the 00s. It
describes the need and practical solutions to systemic thinking for a learning
/ adaptive organization. It covers a lot of different areas:

\- introduction to systemic thinking (via a very good example and then a
formalised introduction to three often occuring systems)

\- personal mastery (life long learning with a reflective attitude) as
foundation for a learning organization (i.e. how can personal self improvement
be scaled up to a similar process with many people involved while keeping
everything together)

\- practical examples at the end (I have not read that part yet, I am just
inferring from the chapter titles)

Even that I have not read the book completely, it is now one of the books I
always recommend when friends with interest in founding a startup ask me for
advice. It is one of the very few "management" (loose category) books I have
read that I actually found useful and actionable. Only problem is that it is
quite big so it takes dedication to read through it.

Edited for formatting, title..

~~~
plainOldText
Small correction: The title is _The Fifth Discipline_.

~~~
prennert
Not sure how I could get that wrong. I guess. I need to look at the title page
more often.. Thanks. Corrected it.

------
jimmcslim
'An Introduction to General Systems Thinking' [1] by the late, great Gerald
Weinberg?

[1]
[https://leanpub.com/generalsystemsthinking](https://leanpub.com/generalsystemsthinking)

Edit: no relation (I believe?) to Gabriel Weinberg of Duck Duck Go who is also
being mentioned in this discussion.

~~~
pjmorris
+1 for this. Arguably all of Weinberg's works teach mental models. 'Are Your
Lights On?' is an easy introduction to his writing and thinking, and
'Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design' is directly applicable to any
software project involving collection of requirements (I thin that's all of
them.)

~~~
neves
Weinberg books are full of wisdom. Systems Thinking is at the core of his
ideas. You can find almost all of his books in LeanPub at a very accessible
price:
[https://leanpub.com/u/jerryweinberg](https://leanpub.com/u/jerryweinberg)

If you are outside the USA, probably the kindle edition will be cheaper.

------
rramadass
1) Sources of Power: How people make decisions by Gary Klein

Introduces
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_primed_decision](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_primed_decision)
It really resonated with me.

2) Thinking and Deciding by Jonathan Baron. Quite thorough and comprehensive.

3) There are also books on
"TRIZ"([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ))
a technique for problem solving, which arose from the former Soviet Union.

------
edem
Not a book, but a course. This one was insanely useful for me and I've applied
the models countless times: [Model Thinking][0]. I heartily recommend this to
anyone who wants to learn about models and has some spare time:

[0]:[https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-
thinking](https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking)

~~~
sonabinu
Scott Page ( from U Michigan who is the creator of the class) has written a
book on models called Model Thinker. I’m currently reading it and think it is
pretty good!

~~~
edem
Scott Page is an awesome guy!

------
btilly
[https://superthinking.com/](https://superthinking.com/) introduces a whole
bunch.

It grew out of [https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
use...](https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
useful-936f1cc405d).

I would suggest starting there.

~~~
wintercarver
I guess my interest is actually in finding books that teach _one_ mental
model, or at most one with a few variations to really send the point home.
There's no shortage of fascinating compilations or general studies (e.g.
Thinking Fast & Slow is not a walk-away-with-one-concept book, apart from
perhaps "oh damn there's a lot of biases out there!"), but there might be a
shortage of books that effectively focus on a single concept.

~~~
gala8y
I wouldn't call it a mental model, but Voice Dialogue method has tremendous
positive impact on people's well-being and consciousness. Somehow it fits your
question, I think. It is a mental model of sorts. "Embracing Our Selves", a
book by Sidra and Hal Stone, is a beautifully written introduction.

------
wintercarver
NOTE: Sorry it wasn't quite clear from my question, but I was hoping to
explore books that were more focused on a single model, not books that teach
or enumerate many models.

My thinking was that the reference-style books are easy to forget and
enjoyable but subject to being forgotten specifically because you spend less
time with any single model. Some books are closer to survey courses, reviewing
a lot of material. They aren't bad, they can be fun. But the books I cited
above specifically feel focused on single concepts, and thus "teach" them
quite well imo.

So, I am specifically curious about books that go deep, evaluate, or really
drive home individual models.

------
mrmrcoleman
I strongly recommend checking out the Cynefin framework:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework)

Knowing which context you're in provides a useful tool when choosing mental
models to approach the problem.

Having said that, 99% of mental models is practice as adopting a mental model
is often an emotional problem too.

For example, while Cynefin may suggest an iterative approach for complex
domains, you'll still need to be emotionally able to deal with the natural
outcomes of iterative problem solving

e.g. being comfortable making decisions with incomplete data, handling
failure, communicating progress when there is no clear way to estimate scope.

------
Zanni
Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa is an introduction to General
Semantics and deals with the limitations of language-oriented mental models,
e.g. "the map is not the territory," a reminder that a model is just a model
and not reality (or what Joel Spolsky would call "a leaky abstraction"). [0]

The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt is a science-fiction novel with a world
that has largely adopted General Semantics. [1]

[0][https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567189.Language_in_Thoug...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567189.Language_in_Thought_and_Action)

[1][https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/951290.The_World_of_Null...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/951290.The_World_of_Null_A)

~~~
traderjane
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. The model is a map to the world,
but at some point, you start thinking about the implications of your model and
you work out an unusual idea, and then it turns out the model implicates new
phenomena.

What guided your ability to find the hidden gold nugget? Lucky guess? Or at
some point, if you get the construction of a map so right, the map will help
you compute interesting truths yet discovered.

------
kesor
"The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt, and other of his books are great books to
learn how to think.

It is a more concrete example of Systems Thinking that is applied to various
environments, manufacturing in "The Goal", marketing and strategy in "It's Not
Luck", projects in "Critical Chain", retail in "Isn't it Obvious", and
personal improvement in "The Choice".

------
andrenth
* Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

* Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger

* The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

* The Great Mental Models

~~~
james_s_tayler
I'm reading The Model Thinker at the moment. +1

~~~
andrenth
There is also a course on Coursera taught by the author which goes well with
the book.

------
ineedasername
Perhaps a different flavor of mental model, but a great book: _" Metaphors We
Live By"_ by George Lakoff

~~~
mikhailfranco
It seems like MWLB should be able to provide the basis space for all other
models, and looser networks like ConceptNet.

I imagine each concept a bit like a Chinese character, with radicals (basis
set), composition using scaling and placement (metric space relations), along
various abstract dimensions (meaning and sound in the case of the characters).

It's a project that's been on my TODO list for far too long.

------
bartimus
This question is strange to me.

Mental models are simply how your brain works. You don't need to read books
about them before they become effective.

You don't need to understand how your legs operate before you can learn to
walk.

The only thing you can learn are concepts. But there's billions of them. It's
what education does.

It's somewhat useful to understand how the brain operates through mental
models. But there's only a single mechanism at play. Basically it's what
happens when your brain sends emotional signals about your environment in
relation to your mental model of it.

~~~
vmurthy
True there are billions of concepts but if you think about it, a few concepts
explain a ton of things. For e.g., incentives. A simple concept in theory but
apply the right incentives if you are leading teams and you'll see a whole lot
of improvements. And that's the beauty of mental models. You don't want
billions of them. Maybe 20-30 of them have enough applicability for most of
the things that you might want to change in your immediate milieu.

Here's an example :

"The heart and soul of the integrity of the ( Fedex )system is that all the
packages have to be shifted rapidly in one central location each night. And
the system has no integrity if the whole shift can’t be done fast. And Federal
Express had one hell of a time getting the thing to work. And they tried moral
suasion, they tried everything in the world, and finally somebody got the
happy thought that they were paying the night shift by the hour, and that
maybe if they paid them by the shift, the system would work better. And lo and
behold, that solution worked."

Source : [https://fs.blog/2017/10/bias-incentives-
reinforcement/](https://fs.blog/2017/10/bias-incentives-reinforcement/)

Edit : clarity and some speeling mistakes ;-)

~~~
bartimus
Yes, I agree logical concepts can be abstracted into generic core concepts.
Like how the concept of "picking up a coffee cup" can be abstracted into the
more generic core concept of "picking up an object" which can be applied more
broadly.

But that's more about logical reasoning than it is about mental models. A
mental model is how the brain understands a logical concept.

There's also a danger with it becoming counter-productive. For example you
might want to learn how to ride a bike. You educate yourself about the
technical workings of the bike. How your body will balance itself. When you
need to apply force on the paddles. Which muscles you will use to apply that
force. You gain full understanding of the concept of "riding bike". This
doesn't mean, however, you now have a proper functioning mental model of it.
The other kid didn't do all the research you did. He just got on his bike and
started trying. After some trial and error he's already making some distance.
His mental model of "riding bike" might already exceed yours even though you
have a better understanding of how it works. You might even be learning more
slowly since you're constantly distracted by how the development of your
mental model matches up with your understanding of it.

I believe this is also why some people stutter. They're constantly thinking
about their speech. Their mental model of "speaking" gets interrupted by them
thinking about it.

So I agree it's valuable to understand core concepts. It's valuable to think
about how the brain works. It's valuable to be able to use your feelings
(caused by your mental model) as tools to effectively make use of your brain.
But I'm not sure it's wise to mess with the mental model that the brain
creates about concepts. Or to define a logical concept as a mental model.

~~~
xtiansimon
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk describes ‘ideology’ as a personal idea of
how the world _really_ works. You could call that a mental model. However,
when I think specifically about the subject ‘mental models’ I return to the
concept I learned about first in the Coursera course Model Thinking by Scott
E. Page (University of Michigan). He teaches a survey of many different
models. For example, there is the Threshold Model [1] developed by Mark
Granovetter and others. This general concept can be applied to a variety of
problems from predicting the spread of infectious disease, to the spread of
social trends in human culture. While the concept can be generalized, it’s
also theoretically grounded in mathematics and statistics.

For this reason I find the OP’s follow-up somewhat—misguided? Seems like he
needs to pick a topic and do some research. Unless we’re just talking about
our favorite books, which is basically what the thread has become. And I love
it.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_model)

~~~
wintercarver
Just reading through comments to aggregate notes, and as the OP, yep: I meant
something closer to "favorite books" but with the condition that they happen
to introduce, by intention or unintentionally, a (single) "mental model" (not
to be too strict about the definition) or perspective of sorts. I realize now
my original question was not that clear, sorry about that!

~~~
xtiansimon
Well. Thanks for the apology; I feel the pain. Broad minded thinking runs into
this problem frequently. But the more I think about it—What’s good in
literature and science and also satisfies the constraint of a grand
conceit—the more I believe the only satisfactory ‘answer’ is the one they
answer for their self. I’ve been trying to answer some similar questions in
philosophy of language since 2005, and I’m still at it. I say, go for it. We
will all be interested to read what you write.

~~~
wintercarver
Thanks for the encouragement to write, it was entirely unexpected and pleasant
- kind of a glimmer of the olde, small internet days. I didn't have this piece
in mind when posting on HN, but all the book recommendations got me thinking
and this is what managed to land on the word processor.

[https://blog.usejournal.com/effort-neglect-and-the-second-
te...](https://blog.usejournal.com/effort-neglect-and-the-second-
textbook-434a3400be2f)

P.S. I am not part of “Journal,” and don’t use it. One of their people reached
out to me and asked if I’d submit my piece to their publication.

------
imakwana
# Intuition Pump and other tools for thinking by Daniel Dennett

# Books edited by John Brockman - 1) This Explains Everything, 2) This Idea is
Brilliant, 3) This Will Make You Smarter, 4) Thinking

# Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

Also second the recommendation of other books based on Charlie Munger's wisdom
and farnam street's reading list.

~~~
enkiv2
I second the recommendation of Intuition Pumps.

To that, I would add Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstader & Prometheus
Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. (Wilson gets a little hippieish, but he does a
better job of knocking down unjustified tunnel-vision than Hofstader or
Dennett do.)

------
bitforger
I wrote a blog post today about how I don't believe in the abstract plane, if
you're into it: [http://mitchgordon.me/philosophy/2019/05/12/non-existence-
of...](http://mitchgordon.me/philosophy/2019/05/12/non-existence-of-abstract-
plane.html)

~~~
alexpetralia
I'm surprised there's no mention of consciousness or Cartesian dualism here.
That is generally where "abstraction" comes in - as a tool for humans. I don't
think anyone is claiming it to be a physical property of the universe.

------
stakhanov
Gabriel Weinberg, Founder-CEO of DuckDuckGo recently wrote one that is about
to hit the shelves: "Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models"

~~~
mxschumacher
he published a long list of mental models in 2016:
[https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
use...](https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
useful-936f1cc405d)

------
emre
I would recommend Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger and these
following two books:

The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You by Scott
Page

[https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-
Know/dp/04650...](https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-
Know/dp/0465094627) and

The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish

[https://www.amazon.com/Great-Mental-Models-Thinking-
Concepts...](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Mental-Models-Thinking-Concepts-
ebook/dp/B07P79P8ST)

------
apo
_Design Patterns_ by Gamma et al. would be an example from software
architecture. It catalogs a couple of dozen patterns that recur in projects
regardless of their specific domains.

 _Open Source Software Licensing_ by Rosen is another. It identifies two broad
categories of open source licenses and shows how various licenses fit into
each.

These two books gave me a framework for thinking about large areas that had
until I read them been quite confusing. They turn a chaotic jumble of special
cases into a simple framework for forming hypotheses and making predictions.

------
abhiyerra
Really enjoyed Science Strategy and War. Basically using the OODA loop and
using mental models to make rapid decisions. The best book on John Boyd’s OODA
loop in my opinion.

------
JustJacks
[https://mind-development.eu/ego-autonomy.html](https://mind-
development.eu/ego-autonomy.html)

------
anhldbk
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl may be?

~~~
honzzz
Yes. And if I may continue with another old book that IMHO deserves to be
mentioned: Neurosis and Human Growth by Karen Horney.

------
rom16384
One book that is often recommended is Pólya's "How to solve it" [1], although
it's more directed at solving mathematical problems than general mental
models.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It)

------
sridvijay
Competing Against Luck (Christensen) - models on how to think about
innovation, and the "jobs to be done" theory (what job is the customer hiring
my product/service for)

Such a small shift in perspective, but it makes such a dramatic difference!
Really recommend reading if you haven't already.

~~~
wintercarver
Has been on my list for a while! Thanks for the nudge. BTW, as a fan of
Christensen's classic The Innovator's Dilemma, I thought Loonshots was quite
good as an alternative perspective where Product-type and Strategy-type
innovations are discussed in comparison to Christensen's sustaining vs
disruptive innovations.

------
daniel_iversen
I love The Decision Book: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9793361-the-
decision-boo...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9793361-the-decision-
book)

... read and skim it quite a few times and it's super nice and quick to use.

------
kitd
_Analysis Patterns_ by Martin Fowler.

Similar to GoF Design Patterns, but at a higher level of system analysis.

------
richajak
My opinion would be different, I believe the good understanding of human
behavior is the key, e.g. what motivates people, reward system, FOMO, etc. Try
to read "Charlie Munger's 25 Cognitive Biases".

------
poormystic
Anything by Krishnamurti. Don’t be fooled by the name; he’s a good thinker :)

------
keithnoizu
Possibly more abstract than what you are looking for but Object-Oriented
Design Heuristics is a decent text.

[https://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-Design-Heuristics-
Art...](https://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-Design-Heuristics-Arthur-
Riel/dp/020163385X/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=design+heuristics&qid=1557742988&s=gateway&sr=8-4)

------
AlchemistCamp
Gabriel Weinberg of Duck Duck go recently released an entire book devoted to
mental models. A few years ago, he also wrote a good article that gives an
early idea what he was thinking about here:

[https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
use...](https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-
useful-936f1cc405d)

------
anupsurendran
I have been struggling with this. Obviously Farnam Street and some medium
posts have done a great job here. I wanted to teach mental models to a younger
audience and make it more fun and actionable so I just started this and am
collecting a group of kids (including mine ;) )
[http://www.enchanting.io](http://www.enchanting.io)

------
ForHackernews
I'd recommend "The Art and Craft of Problem Solving" by Paul Zeitz, who
coached the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team.
[https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471789011/artofprob...](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471789011/artofproblems-20)

------
tim333
There's Munger's talk. Not a book but quite good anyway
[http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Worldly-
Wi...](http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Worldly-Wisdom-by-
Munger.pdf)

------
alexpetralia
Not a book, but here is a shameless plug for my newsletter where I write
regularly about mental models I find interesting:
[https://alexpetralia.github.io/newsletters](https://alexpetralia.github.io/newsletters)

------
tmaly
I have found Poor Charlies Almanack by Charlie Muenger to have quite a few.

Thinking Fast and Slow is another great book that explains some of the mental
models well.

The Art of Thinking Clearly is yet another that is actually more like a
dictionary of mental models.

------
LeonB
“Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke takes you through a specific model.

“Principles” by Ray Dalio gives a mesh of models that Ray has learnt or
improved.

------
quickthrower2
I’ve been thinking I wish someone would write a mental model oriented book
converting the models for git, react/frp, OO, prototypical OO, Kubernetes,
blockchain, DB indexes, peer to peer networking and whatever else.

Maybe each chapter is a different author.

I think mental model first learning would be a lot faster. Each git command
can be explained in the mental model rather than as a stand-alone thing.

You could probably sum each one up in 10 pages or less. No code, no commands,
just diagrams and a good explqination.

~~~
akudha
I _kinda_ understand what you are saying, but not fully. Do you have an
example of such article (or video) on one of the topics you listed?

~~~
quickthrower2
I don't have an example sorry.

------
netcan
Modern (post renaissance) history, economics and political theory are often
totally model focused.

Ibn Khaldun is (in my definitions) the earliest example). He describes
mesapotamian history, for example, as a process where barbarians take a city,
gradually become soft urbanites and then it happens again. It's a model rather
than an occurrence.

It's a predecessor of Adam Smith, Marx, and even 2019 people like Yuval Noah
Harari. The thesis is a model. Facts are tests and/or values for the model,
not the thesis.

------
insomniacity
Not a book, but I recommend the Coursera Model Thinking course.

------
sus_007
Not exactly a book, but here's a podcast on the topic by Sam Harris with Shane
Parrish of the Farnam Street blog.

[https://youtu.be/xYoecW3j7u0](https://youtu.be/xYoecW3j7u0)

------
magnamerc
I'm sure this is where this is coming from, but if not, Sam Harris's latest
podcast is about mental models. I know it's not a book, but I found it
insightful.

------
bigred100
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

~~~
70122-_6
If a bloke is chained to atree, ya don't blame the tree .... do you?

