
General Thinking Tools: Mental Models to Solve Difficult Problems - BerislavLopac
https://www.fs.blog/general-thinking-tools/
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tony_cannistra
Cool stuff. I'm disappointed to see that none of philosopher Dan Dennett's
recent work [1] on this topic has come into these pages though. There's some
overlap especially in the "thought experiment" realm, and it gets a rigorous
philosophical treatment which for some is the key to this kind of problem-
solving. (disclaimer: I was in the cohort of undergrads that Dennett used to
review his chapters).

1: [https://www.amazon.com/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-
Thinking/...](https://www.amazon.com/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-
Thinking/dp/0393348784/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=)

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vinceguidry
I call these forms of wisdom, or second-order intellect. First order intellect
is insights you get through direct study of the world, wisdom is insights you
get through meta-study of forms of intellect.

My underlying model of cognition extends this to 8 different levels, ending
with consciousness itself. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Third order
intellect is the study of ego, how we get in our own way. Fourth order
intellect is the study of identity, the forms we use to actually consider
ourselves.

The rest of them concern the nuts and bolts of perception.

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dhimes
Haven't read the details yet but if OP is here I would recommend renaming
"second-order thinking" to "second-step thinking." Second-order, in the
mathematical sciences, has a connotation which is likely contrary to what you
intend. When speaking about something that is not literally expanded in a
power series, it usually references something that is much less important that
the most important contributer.

~~~
sl8r
This is probably because Howard Marks popularized the idea under that name in
"The Most Important Thing". He looks like FS's main source in the detail piece
([https://www.fs.blog/2016/04/second-level-
thinking/](https://www.fs.blog/2016/04/second-level-thinking/)).

I think he does mean it as an analogy to the math concept, like ~x being first
order and ~x^2 being second order for x near zero; x dominates but x^2 (the
"second order") gets you closer to the truth. And similarly for x^3, x^4, ...,
x^n.

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jacquesm
That's a very cool list. Two more: reduction to absurdity and divide and
conquer. They're probably the most worn tools in my own mental toolbox.

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

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tapatio
Very cool. Thanks!

