This guide explores everything you need to know about mental models. When you finish, you think better, make fewer mistakes, and get better results.

2025/07/0915:04:49 psychological 1989

This guide explores everything you need to know about mental models. When you finish, you think better, make fewer mistakes, and get better results.

directory:

What is a mental model?

Learn to think better

Grids for building mental models

Mind model

Core thinking concept

Bio Learn

System

Mathematics

Microeconomics

What is a mental model?

mind model is how we understand the world. They shape not only how we think and understand, but also the connections and opportunities we see. The mental model is the way we simplify complexity, why we think that certain things are more relevant than others, and how we reason.

mind model is just a representation of how things work. We cannot keep all the details of the world in our brains, so we use models to reduce complex things into comprehensible and organized blocks.

Learn to think better

The quality of our thinking is proportional to the model in our mind and its usefulness in the current situation. The more models you have – the bigger your toolbox – the more likely you are to have the right models to see reality. It turns out that diversity is important when it comes to improving your decision-making abilities.

However, most of us are experts. We have some thinking model from our discipline, not mesh of mind model. Every expert has a different opinion. By default, a typical engineer will think in the system. Psychologists think from the perspective of motivation. Biologists will think from an evolutionary perspective. By putting these disciplines in our minds, we can solve a problem in a three-dimensional way. If we look at the problem only in one way, we have a blind spot. Blind spots will kill you.

This is another way of thinking. When botanists observe forests, they may focus on ecosystems, environmentalists will see the effects of climate change, forestry engineers will focus on the growth state of trees, and businessmen will focus on the value of land. None of them is wrong, but none of them can describe the full scope of the forest. Sharing knowledge, or learning the basics of other disciplines, will lead to a more comprehensive understanding that will allow for better initial decisions on forest management.

In a famous speech in the 1990s, Charlie Munger summarized ways to gain practical wisdom by understanding the mental model, saying, “Well, the first rule is that if you only remember the isolated facts and try to hit, you won’t really know anything.” Come back. If facts are not combined on the grid of theory, then you have no form available. There must be a model in your mind. And you have to arrange your alternative and direct experiences on the grid of this model. You may have noticed that students are just trying to remember and hit back at what they remember. Well, they failed in school and in life. You have to hang your experience on the model grid in your mind. ”

Mind Model Toolbox

Mental Model Grid

To help you build a mesh of mental models so that you can make better decisions, we have collected and summarized the models we find that we think are the most useful.

Remember: Building your grid is a lifelong project. Keep it up and you will find that your ability to understand reality, make consistent and correct decisions, and help the people you love will continue to improve.

Core mental model

1. Map is not a territory

Realistic map is not a reality. Even the best maps are not perfect. That's because they are a reduction of what they represent. If the map is to represent territory with perfect fidelity, it is no longer a reduction and therefore no longer useful to us. A map can also be a snapshot of a certain point in time, representing something that no longer exists. It is important to keep this in mind when we think about problems and make better decisions.

2. Circle of Ability

When the self, not ability, drives what we do, we have blind spots. If you know what you understand, you will know where you have an advantage over others. When you honestly state your lack of knowledge, you will know your weaknesses and what can be improved. Understanding your circle of competence can improve decisions and outcomes.

3. First Principle Thinking

First Principle Thinking is one of the best ways to reverse engineer complex situations and unlock creative possibilities. Sometimes called reasoning from first principles, it is a tool that helps clarify complex issues by separating potential ideas or facts from any assumptions based on them. What remains are essentials. If you know the primary principles of something, you can build the rest of your knowledge around them to generate something new.

4. Thought Experiment

Thought Experiment can be defined as "an imagination device used to study the essence of things". Many disciplines, such as philosophy and physics, use thought experiments to test what can be known. By doing so, they can open up new ways of inquiry and exploration. Thought experiments are powerful because they help us learn from mistakes and avoid future mistakes. They allow us to take on impossible things, evaluate the potential consequences of our actions, and revisit history to make better decisions. They can help us figure out what we really want and the best way to get there.

5. Second-order thinking

Almost everyone can predict the direct result of their actions. This type of first-order thinking is simple and safe, but it is also a way to ensure you get the same results as others. Second-order thinking means thinking further and more comprehensively. It requires us to consider not only our actions and their direct consequences, but also the subsequent impact of those actions. Disagreeing with the second and third order effects may cause disasters.

6. Probability Thinking

Probability Thinking is essentially an attempt to use some mathematical and logical tools to estimate the possibility of any particular result occurring. It is one of our best tools to improve decision accuracy. In a world where every moment is determined by an infinitely complex set of factors, probability thinking helps us determine the most likely outcome. When we know this, our decisions can be more precise and effective.

7. Inverting

Inverting is a powerful tool to improve your thinking because it can help you identify and eliminate barriers to success. The root of reversal is "reversal", which means reversal or reversal. As a thinking tool, it means approaching a situation from the other end of the natural starting point. Most of us tend to think about problems in one way: move forward. Inversion allows us to flip the problem and think backwards. Sometimes it's good to start from scratch, but it can be more useful to start from scratch.

8. Occam Razor

A simple explanation is more likely to be correct than a complex explanation. This is the essence of Occam’s Razor, a classic logic and problem-solving principle. Rather than wasting time trying to refute complex scenarios, you can make decisions more confidently by based on explanations with minimal activity.

9. Hanlon's Razor

is difficult to trace its origins, and Hanlon's Razor points out that we should not attribute maliciousness that is easier to explain with silly to maliciousness. In a complex world, using this pattern can help us avoid paranoia and ideology . It is not usually assumed that the bad result is the fault of the bad actors, and we look for choices rather than missed opportunities.This model reminds us that people do make mistakes. It asks us to ask if there are other reasonable explanations for events that have already occurred. The most likely correct explanation is the one with the least intention.

The mental model of physics and chemistry

1. Theory of Relativity

Relativity has been used in many situations in the physics community, but the important aspect to be studied is that the observer cannot truly understand that he himself is a part of the system. For example, the person inside the plane does not feel that he is experiencing a motion, but an outside observer can see that the motion is happening. This form of relativity often affects social systems in similar ways.

2. Reciprocity

If I push the wall, physics tells me that the wall pushes back with the same force. In biological systems, if one person takes action against another, the action will tend to be rewarded in kind. Of course, human behavior also shows strong reciprocity.

3. Thermodynamics Thermodynamics

law describes the energy in a closed system. The law is inescapable and is the basis of the material world. They describe a world where useful energy is constantly lost, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. Applying their experience to the social world can be a profitable cause.

4. Inertial

Objects moving in a specific vector want to continue moving in that direction unless they are taken action on it. This is the basic physics of movement; however, individuals, systems and organizations exhibit the same effect. It enables them to minimize the use of energy, but can cause them to be destroyed or eroded.

5. Friction and viscosity

Friction and viscosity both describe the difficulty of movement. Friction is a force against the movement of objects in contact with each other, and viscosity measures the difficulty of one fluid sliding over another. Higher viscosity leads to higher resistance. These concepts teach us a lot about how the environment hinders our movement.

6. Velocity

speed does not equal speed; the two are sometimes confused. Speed is the speed plus vector: the speed at which something reaches a certain place. The object that moves forward two steps and then backward two steps moves at a certain speed, but no speed is displayed. The key difference between adding vectors is what we should consider in real life.

7. Leverage

Most engineering miracles in the world are accomplished by applying leverage. As Archimedes said, "Give me a lever that is long enough and I will push the world." With a small amount of input force, we can generate a large output force through leverage. Understanding where we can apply this model to the human world can be a source of great success.

8, activation energy

Fire is just a combination of carbon and oxygen, but forests and coal mines in the world do not burn at will, because such chemical reactions require the input of a critical level of " activation energy ". To start the reaction. Just two combustible elements are not enough.

9. Catalyst

Catalyst can initiate or maintain chemical reactions, but it is not a reactant itself. If no catalyst is added, the reaction may slow down or stop. Of course, social systems have many similar characteristics, and we can look at catalysts from a similar perspective.

10. Alloyed

When we combine various elements, we create new substances. This is not surprising, but it is surprising during the alloying process that 2+2 can be less than 4, but 6—an alloy is much stronger than simply adding the base element that we believe. This process leads us to design great physical objects, but we understand many invisible things in the same way; the combination of correct elements in social systems and even individuals can produce 2 + 2 = 6 effects similar to alloying.

The mental model of biology

1. Evolution Part 1: Natural selection and extinction

The evolution of natural selection was once called "the greatest idea ever". In the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace simultaneously realized that species evolved through random mutations and different survival rates.If we refer to human intervention in animal reproduction as an example of “artificial selection,” we can refer to nature that determines success or failure of a particular mutation as “natural selection.” Those that are best for survival are often preserved. But of course, things will change.

2. Evolution Part 2: Adaptation and Red Queen Effect

Considering the combination of their genes and environment—a always inevitable combination, species tend to adapt to the environment in order to survive. However, the adaptation one makes throughout his life will not be inherited through genetics as once thought: species populations adapt through evolutionary processes of natural selection, because the most suitable species replicate at an above-average rate.

natural selection evolution model has led to an arms race between species for limited resources. When an species evolves to achieve favorable adaptability, a competing species must respond in the same way, or fail as a species. Staying still can mean being behind. For the character in Alice Sleep in Wonderland, this arms race is called the Red Queen effect, he said: "Now, here, you see, you need to do everything you can to stay in the same place."

3. Ecosystem

Ecosystem describes any biome that coexists with nature. Most ecosystems show that different forms of life take different ways of living, and this stress leads to different behaviors. Social systems can be viewed from the same perspective as physical ecosystems and many of the same conclusions can be drawn.

4.Need

Most organisms have found a niche: a way to compete and act for survival. Typically, a species will choose an ecosystem that best suits it. Danger comes when multiple species start to compete for the same niche, which can lead to extinction – only so many species are doing the same before the limited resources are exhausted.

5. Self-protection

If the organism's DNA does not have a strong self-protection instinct, it will disappear over time, thereby eliminating the DNA. While collaboration is another important mode, self-protection instinct is strong in all living things and can cause violent, unstable, and/or destructive behavior to those around you.

6. Copy

A basic component of diverse biological life is high fidelity replication. The basic unit of replication appears to be the DNA molecule , which provides a blueprint for descendants built from physical components. There are multiple ways to replicate, but most can be divided into sexual and asexual.

7. Cooperation

Competition tends to describe most biological systems, but cooperation at different levels is equally important. In fact, a collaboration between a bacteria and a simple cell may have created the first complex cell and all the life we see around us. Without cooperation, no group can survive, and cooperation of groups will result in more complex organizational forms. Cooperation and competition often coexist at multiple levels.

Prisoner Dilemma is a famous application of game theory , where two prisoners are best to work with each other, but if one of them cheats, the other is best to cheat. This will lead to a dilemma. This model appears in many other areas of economic life, war, and real human life. Although prisoner dilemma can theoretically lead to bad results, in the real world, cooperation is almost always possible and must be explored.

8. Hierarchical organization

Most complex biological organisms have an innate feeling about how they should be organized. While not all of this ends up in hierarchy, many are, especially in the animal kingdom. Humans like to think they are outside of this, but they feel the hierarchical instinct as strongly as any other organism. This includes the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment , which show what humans actually learned years ago: human bias against authority influenced by. In dominant hierarchies like ours, we tend to seek behavioral guidance from leaders, especially in situations of stress or uncertainty.Therefore, it is the responsibility of authoritative figures to behave well, whether they like it or not.

9. Motivation

All creatures will respond to motivation to maintain their lives. This is the basic view of biology. To a certain extent, continuous incentives often lead to continuous behavior of biological entities. Humans are included and are particularly good examples of the driving nature of biological incentives; however, humans are complex because their motivations may be hidden or invisible. The rules of life are things that work and get rewarded.

10. Trend to minimize energy output (mental and physical)

In a physical world dominated by thermodynamics and competition for limited energy and resources, any biological organism that wastes energy will be at a serious disadvantage in survival. Therefore, we see in most cases that behavior is subject to the tendency to minimize energy use.

Mental model of system thinking

1. Feedback loop

All complex systems are affected by positive feedback and negative feedback loops, where A causes B, B in turn affects A (and C), and so on—higher order effects are often generated by the continuous motion of the loop. In a steady-state system, changes in A are often consistent with opposite changes in B to maintain the balance of the system, such as the behavior of human body temperature or tissue culture. The automatic feedback loop maintains a "static" environment unless external forces change the loop. The "out-of-control feedback loop" describes the situation where the output of a reaction becomes its own catalyst (autocatalysis).

2. Equilibrium

steady state is the process by which the system self-regulates to maintain equilibrium states, allowing them to play a role in a changing environment. Most of the time, they will go slightly above or below it and have to be constantly adjusted. Just like a pilot flying an aircraft, the system deviates from the route more frequently than the normal route. Everything within a steady-state system helps keep it within the equilibrium range, so it is important to understand the limitations of that range.

3. Bottleneck

Bottleneck describes where (tangible or intangible) flow stops, thus limiting its continuous motion. As with arterial clogging or drainage, the production bottleneck of any goods or services may be small, but if it is located on a critical path, it will have a disproportionate impact. However, bottlenecks can also be a source of inspiration because they force us to rethink whether there are other paths to success.

4. One of the most important principles of scale

systems is that they are sensitive to scale. They tend to change when you zoom in or out of attributes (or behavior). When studying complex systems, we must always roughly quantify—at least on the order of magnitude—we observe, analyze or predict the size of the system.

5. Safety margin

Similarly, engineers have also developed the habit of adding error margins to all calculations. In an unknown world, driving a 9,500-pound bus through a bridge that accurately carries 9,600-pound weight is rarely considered clever. So, in general, few modern bridges fail. In real life outside of physical engineering, we can usually provide ourselves with the same powerful profit as the bridge system.

6. Churn

Insurance companies and subscription services are very clear about the concept of churn - there is a certain number of customers lost every year and must be replaced. Staying still means failure, as seen in a model called "Red Queen Effect". Churn exists in many business and human systems: a constant number is lost periodically and must be replaced before any new number is added.

7. Algorithm

Although it is difficult to define precisely, an algorithm is usually a set of automated rules or "blueprints" that leads to a series of steps or actions that lead to expected results, and is usually expressed in a series of "if → then" declarations. The algorithm is known for its application in modern computing, but it is also a feature of biological life. For example, human DNA contains algorithms used to build humans.

8. Critical mass

It becomes crucial when a system is about to jump discretely from one stage to another.The marginal utility of the last unit before phase transition is much higher than any unit before it. An often cited example is when water turns from liquid to steam when heated to a specific temperature. "Critical mass" refers to the mass required to occur a critical event, most commonly found in nuclear systems.

9. The emergence of higher levels of

tends to emerge from the interaction of lower-order components. The results are usually not linear—not simple addition—but nonlinear or exponential. An important outcome attribute of emergency behavior is that it cannot be predicted by simply studying components.

10. Irreducibility

We find that there are irreducible quantitative properties in most systems, such as complexity, minimum value, time and length. Under the irreducible level, the desired result will not appear at all. It is impossible for a person to get pregnant for several women to reduce the time it takes to have a child, and it is impossible for a person to simplify a successfully built car into a piece. These results are irreducible to a certain extent.

11. The law of diminishing returns

is related to scale, and the most important result in the real world will eventually decline with the decrease in incremental value. A good example is a poor family: give them enough money to thrive and they are no longer poor. But after a certain level, the extra money will not improve their fate; at a roughly quantifiable point, the return of the extra dollar will be significantly reduced. Often, the law of diminishing returns turns to negative areas—that is, receiving too much money can destroy this poor family.

Mathematical Mental Model

1. Distribution

Normal distribution is a statistical process that leads to a well-known bell-shaped curve graphical representation with meaningful central "average" and less standard deviation from that average when correctly sampled. (The so-called "central limit" theorem.) Well-known examples include human height and weight, but it is equally important to pay attention to many common processes, especially in intangible systems such as social systems, which do not follow this pattern. The normal distribution can be compared with the power law or exponential distribution.

2. Compound interest

It is said that Einstein calls compound interest a miracle in the world. He may not have, but it is a miracle. Compounding is the process of adding interest to a fixed amount, then earning interest from the previous amount and the newly added interest, then earning interest on that amount, and so on, an infinite loop. It is an exponential effect, not a linear or additive effect. Money is not the only thing that is compounded. The same goes for ideas and relationships. In the tangible field, compound interest is always affected by physical limitations and diminishing returns; intangible assets can be compounded more freely. Compound interest also leads to the time value of the currency, which is the basis of all modern finance.

3. Sampling

When we want to get information about a population (i.e. a group of similar people, things, or events), we usually need to look at a sample (i.e. a part of the population). It is often impossible, or even desirable, to consider the population as a whole, so our goal is to represent a sample of the whole. As a rule of thumb, more measurements mean more accurate results, everything else is the same. Small sample sizes will produce biased results.

4. Randomness

Although the human brain cannot understand it, most of the world is composed of random, discontinuous, disordered events. When we attribute causality to things that are actually beyond our control, we are “fooled” by random effects. If we do not correct this effect of being fooled by randomness—our false sense of pattern search—we tend to think things are more predictable than they actually are and act accordingly.

5. Regression mean

In a normal distributed system, the long-term deviation from the mean will tend to return the average as the number of observations increases: the so-called law of large numbers. We are often fooled by the return to mean, like a patient who spontaneously improves while starting to take herbs, or a poor-performing sports team wins continuously.We must be careful not to confuse statistically possible events with causal events.

6. Multiply by zero

Anyone with a reasonable education knows that any number multiplied by zero, no matter how large the number is, is still zero. This is true in both human systems and mathematical systems. In some systems, failures in one area may offset the enormous efforts in all others. As simple multiplication shows, fixing "zero" is usually much more effective than trying to expand other areas.

7. Equivalence

The introduction of algebra allows us to prove in mathematical and abstract ways that two seemingly different things may be the same. By manipulating symbols, we can prove equivalent or inequality, and its use has enabled humans to gain countless engineering and technical capabilities. Understanding the basics of algebra at least allows us to understand various important results.

8. Surface area

The surface area of a three-dimensional object is the amount of space outside it. Therefore, the larger the surface area you have, the more contact you will have with the environment. Sometimes a larger surface area is required: Our lungs and intestines have huge surface area that can increase the absorption of oxygen and nutrients. Other times we want to reduce our exposure, such as limiting our internet exposure to reduce the attack surface.

9. Global and local

Maximum value The maximum and minimum values of the mathematical function are the maximum and minimum values in its domain. Although there is a maximum, the global maximum, there may be a smaller peak, the local maximum, within a given range. Global and local maximums help us identify peaks and whether it is still possible to go higher or lower. It also reminds us that sometimes we have to go down to get up.

Mind model of microeconomics

1. Opportunity cost

Do one thing means you can’t do another. We live in a world of trade-offs, and the concept of opportunity cost dictates everything. It is most appropriately summarized as "no free lunch".

2. Creative destruction

Economist The term "creative destruction" created by Joseph Schumpeter (Joseph Schumpeter) describes the process of capitalism operating in a well-functioning free market system. Inspired by personal incentives, including but not limited to economic profits, entrepreneurs will push each other in an endless game of originality, destroying old ideas and replacing them with new technologies. Be careful to be left behind.

3. Comparative Advantages

Scottish Economist David Ricardo has an unusual and non-intuitive insight: two individuals, companies or countries can benefit from mutual trading, even if one of them does better in all respects. Comparative advantage is best seen as an opportunity cost for applications: if it has the opportunity to trade, an entity will give up on the free benefits of productivity because it does not focus on what it does best.

4. Specialization (Pin Factory)

Another Scottish economist Adam Smith emphasized the advantages of specialization gained in the free market system. Smith explained that getting each of them to focus on one aspect of production is usually more efficient than having a group of workers produce a complete product from start to finish. However, he also cautioned that every worker may not enjoy such a life. This is a trade-off of the specialized model.

5. Grab the game

In chess, the winning strategy is usually to seize the middle game of the chessboard, so as to maximize the potential of playing chess and control the moves of the largest piece. The same strategy can also be profitable in business, as demonstrated by John D. Rockefeller 's control of the refining business in the early stages of the oil trade and Microsoft 's control of the operating system in the early stages of the software trade.

6. The three concepts of trademark, patent and copyright

, together with other related concepts, protect creative works created by enterprising individuals, thus creating additional impetus for creativity and promoting the creative destruction model of capitalism. Without these protections, information and creative workers cannot resist the free distribution of their works.

7. Double bookkeeping

One of the miracles of modern capitalism is the accounting system introduced in Genoa in the 14th century. The double accounting system requires that each entry, such as income, also enter another corresponding account. Correct duplex bookkeeping can check for potential accounting errors and allow accurate records, thus making the behavior of the company owner more accurate.

8. Utility (marginal, decreasing, incremental)

The utility of any product's additional unit often varies with scale. Marginal utility allows us to understand the value of an additional unit and in most practical areas of life, this utility decreases at some point. On the other hand, in some cases, additional units are affected by the "critical points" where the utility function jumps discretely upward or downward. For example, for a thirsty person, every additional unit of water is added, the marginal utility will decrease, and he may eventually be killed with enough units.

9. Bribery

is often overlooked in mainstream economics, and the concept of bribery is at the heart of the human system: if there is a chance, it is often easier to pay a certain agent than to follow the rules. The enforcer of the rules is then neutralized. This principle/agent problem can be regarded as a form of arbitrage.

10. Arbitrage

Given that two markets sell the same goods, there is arbitrage if the goods can be profitably purchased in one market and sold in another market in a profitable manner. This model is simple on the surface, but can be disguised as itself: the only gas station within a radius of 50 miles is also arbitrage, as it can buy gasoline and sell it at the desired profit (temporarily) without interruption. Almost all arbitrage situations will eventually disappear as they are discovered and exploited.

11. Supply and demand relationship

One of the basic equations of biological and economic life is the limited supply of essential goods and the competition for these goods. Just as biological entities compete for limited available energy, economic entities are also compete for limited customer wealth and limited demand for their products. The point where the supply and demand of a given commodity is equal is called equilibrium; however, in real life, the equilibrium point is often dynamically changing rather than static.

12. Scarce game theory

describes conflict, limited resources and competition. What decisions are likely to make for competitors and what should they make in specific situations and limited resources and time? An important note is that traditional game theory may describe humans as more rational than they actually are. After all, game theory is theory.

13.Mr. Marketing

Mr. Marketing is introduced by Investor Benjamin Graham in his pioneering book " Smart Investor " to represent the changes in the financial market. As Graham explains, the market is a bit like a moody neighbor, sometimes waking up happy, sometimes waking up sad - as an investor, your job is to use him when he is in a bad mood and sell him when he is in a good mood. This attitude is in sharp contrast to the effective market hypothesis . In the effective market hypothesis, the market always wakes up in the middle of the bed and does not feel too strong in either direction.

Mental Model of Military and War

1. See Frontline

One of the most valuable military strategies is the habit of "seeing the frontline in person" before making a decision - not always relying on consultants, maps and reports, all of which can be wrong or biased. Map/territorial models illustrate the problem of not seeing the positive, and so is the motivational model. Leaders of any organization can often benefit from seeing positives because it not only provides first-hand information, but also tends to improve the quality of second-hand information.

2. Asymmetric war

Asymmetric model leads to an application in war, that is, due to the situation, one party seems to "act according to different rules" from the other party. Often, this model applies to insurgents with limited resources. Because they cannot surpass their opponent's muscles, asymmetrical fighters use other tactics, such as fear caused by terrorism, disproportionately to their actual ability to destroy.

3. Two-line war

World War II is a good example of a two-line war. Once Russia and Germany became enemies, Germany was forced to separate its troops and send them to different fronts, thereby weakening their influence on either front. In real life, opening a two-line war is usually a useful strategy, as is the case with solving two-line wars or avoiding two-line wars, such as examples of organizations quelling internal discords to focus on their competitors.

4. Suppression

Although asymmetric rebellion wars are very effective, over time, competitors have also formulated strategies for counter-insurgency. Recently, the famous American General David Petraeus led the development of a counterinsurgency program that involved no additional force but rather a large amount of additional benefits. War or competition for tooth often leads to a feedback loop that requires rebellion and counter-insurgency.

5. Mutual guarantees to destroy each other

Somewhat contradictory is that the stronger the two opponents become, the less likely they will be to destroy each other. This process of mutually guaranteed destruction occurs not only in wars, such as the development of global nuclear warheads, but also in business, such as avoiding destructive price wars between competitors. However, in a fat-tail world, mutually guaranteed damage scenarios can also make damage more severe when errors occur (pushing damage into the "tail" of the distribution).

The psychological model of human nature and judgment

1. Trust

Fundamentally, the modern world relies on trust to operate. Family trust is usually given (or we will have a hellish time), but we also choose to trust chefs, staff, drivers, factory workers, executives and many others. Trust systems are often the systems that work most efficiently. The return on trust is very high.

2. Bias from motivation

is highly sensitive to motivation, and humans may have the most diverse and difficult-to-understand incentive mechanisms in the animal kingdom. This causes us to distort our thoughts in our own interests. A good example is a salesperson who truly believes that his products will improve the lives of users. It is not only convenient for him to sell products; the fact that he sells products leads to very real bias in his own ideas.

3. Pavlov Association

Ivan Pavlov proved very effectively that animals can not only respond to direct excitation, but also respond to related objects; remember that famous dogs drool when the ringtone rings. Humans are roughly the same and can have positive and negative emotions about intangible objects that come from past associations rather than direct effects.

4. Jealousy and tendency to jealousy

Humans tend to be jealous of those who get more than they and desire to "get their stuff" in due time. The tendency to jealousy is strong enough to drive other irrational behaviors, but is as old as humans themselves. Any system that knows nothing about the jealousy effect will self-immolate over time.

5. Because of the tendency to like or dislike

like/hate and distorted based on past connections, stereotypes, ideology, genetic influences or direct experiences, humans tend to distort their thinking, tend to favor people or things they like, and oppose people or things they don’t like. This tendency leads to overestimating what we like, underestimating or broadly categorizing what we don’t like, often missing key nuances in the process.

6. Deny

Anyone who lives long enough will realize that, as the saying goes, “denial is not just a river in Africa.” This is strongly demonstrated in situations such as war or substance abuse, in which denial has a strong destructive effect but allows for inertia in behavior. Denied reality can be a coping mechanism, a survival mechanism, or a purposeful strategy.

7. Usability Heuristics

One of the most useful findings in modern psychology is what Daniel Kahneman calls usability bias or heuristic: we tend to recall most easily what is significant, important, frequent and recent.The brain has its own tendency to save energy and inertia, which we can hardly control—a usability heuristic is probably one of them. Having a truly comprehensive memory can make people weak. Some sub-examples of usability heuristics include anchoring and sunk cost trends.

8. Representative heuristic

belongs to three representative psychological findings, also defined by Kahneman and his partner Tworsky, as:

A failure to consider the base interest rate, unconsciously failing to view past odds when determining current or future behavior.

Stereotype tendency

broadly generalizes and categorizes rather than looking for specific nuances. As with usability, this is often a necessary feature of brain energy saving.

The most famous proof of the Linda test is that these two psychologists show that students choose more vividly described individuals are more likely to fit predefined categories than those with a broader, more inclusive but less vivid description, even if vivid examples are just a subset of a more inclusive collection. These specific examples are considered more representative than those that are broader but vague, and violate logic and probability.

9. Social proof (numerical security)

Humans are one of many social species, including bees, ants, chimpanzees, etc. We have a DNA-level instinct that seeks a sense of security in quantity and will seek social guidance for our behavior. This instinct creates a cohesive sense of collaboration and culture that is impossible in other cases, but if our team is doing these things, it can also lead us to do stupid things.

10. Narrative Instinct

Humans are appropriately called "storytelling animals" because we instinctively construct and seek meaning in narrative. It is likely that we were telling stories and thinking in stories long before we developed the ability to write or create objects. Almost all social organizations, from religious institutions to companies to nation-states, are based on narrative instinct.

11. Curious Instinct

We like to call other species curious, but we are the most curious. This instinct leads us out of the savanna, allowing us to learn a lot about the world around us, and use this information to create the world in our collective minds. The instinct of curiosity leads to unique human behavior and organizational forms such as scientific enterprises. Even before there is a direct motivation for innovation, humans innovate out of curiosity.

12. Language Instinct

Psychologist Steven Pinker calls our DNA-level instinct to learn grammatical structured language. The idea that grammatical language is not a simple cultural product was first promoted by linguist Noam Chomsky. As we see in our narrative instincts, we use these instincts to create shared stories, as well as gossip, problem solving, fight and so on. Syntactic orderly language has infinitely variable meanings in theory.

13. First conclusion deviation

As Charlie Munger pointed out, the mind works a bit like sperm and eggs: the first thought goes in, and then the mind closes. Like many other trends, this could be an energy-efficient device. We tend to conclude first, which leads us to accept many wrong results and stop asking questions; we can deal with it through some simple and useful mental habits.

14. Trend of over-generalization from small samples

Human generalization is important; we don't need to see each instance to understand the general rules, which is good for us. However, when we forget the law of large numbers and act as if it does not exist, generalization will have a subset of errors. Even if we don't have a statistically reasonable basis for conclusions, we will take a small number of instances and create a common category.

15. Relative satisfaction/pain tendency

Jealous tendency may be the most obvious manifestation of relative satisfaction tendency, but almost all studies on human happiness have shown that it is related to the state of a person relative to the past or peers, rather than absolute.These relative tendencies bring us great pain or happiness in a variety of objectively different situations, and make us unable to predict our behavior and feelings.

16. Commitment and Consistency Bias

As psychologists often and well-knownly demonstrate, humans tend to keep their prior commitments and be as consistent as possible with our previous self. This characteristic is necessary for social cohesion: people who often change conclusions and habits are often distrustworthy. However, as some say, our bias against being consistent can turn into a "fool-minded goblin" - when it combines with the bias of the first conclusion, we end up with bad answers and stand by in the face of a lot of evidence.

17. Post-Sight Prejudice

It is nearly impossible to turn time back mentally once we know the result. Our narrative instincts make us infer that we always know (regardless of what “it” is), and in fact, we usually just reason afterwards with information we cannot obtain before the event happens. The hindsight bias explains why it is wise to keep a log of important decisions to keep the same record and revisit our beliefs when we convince ourselves that we always know.

18. Sensitivity to fairness and justice

is deeply rooted in our blood vessels. In another example of our relative happiness, we are fair and cautious arbiters. Violations of fairness can be regarded as a reason for reciprocity or at least distrust. However, fairness itself seems to be a moving target. Things that are considered fair and just at a certain time and place may not exist at another time and place. Considering that slavery is seen as completely natural and totally unnatural at the alternating stages of human existence.

19. The tendency to overestimate behavioral consistency (basic attribution error)

We tend to overestimate the behavior of others to their innate characteristics rather than situational factors, which leads us to overestimate the consistency of this behavior in the future. In this case, predicting behavior does not seem very difficult. Of course, in practice, this assumption has been proven to be false, so we are surprised when others do not act according to the “innate” characteristics we have given them.

20. Effects of stress (including breakpoints)

Stress causes psychological and physiological reactions and tends to amplify other biases. When the body enters a fight or flight response, almost all human psychological biases get worse, relying entirely on instinct without the emergency braking of Daniel Kahneman’s “System 2” type reasoning. Stress leads to a regression of hasty decisions, immediacy and habituality, thus producing the motto of elite soldiers: "In a fierce battle, you will not rise to your expected level, but will fall to your training level."

21. Survivor bias

A major problem in historiography—our interpretation of the past—is that famous history is written by the winner. We cannot see what Nasim Taleb calls the "silent grave" - the lottery holder without winning numbers. So we over-attribute success to what successful agents do, rather than randomness or luck, we often learn the wrong lessons by specializing in the winners without seeing all the losers who act the same way but are not lucky enough. success.

22. The tendency to do something (fight/flight, intervention, value display, etc.)

We can call it boring syndrome: most people have a tendency to act, even if their actions do not. Even if we don’t have the knowledge to solve problems, we tend to provide solutions.

23. Forged/confirm bias

He also believes what a person wants. Again, what we believe is what we choose to see. This is often referred to as confirmation bias. This is a deeply rooted psychological habit that is both energy-saving and comfortable, seeking confirmation of long-term wisdom rather than violations. However, the scientific process—including hypothesis generation, blind testing when needed, and objective statistical rigor—is designed to completely eradicate the opposite, which is why it works so effectively when it follows.

Modern scientific undertakings operate under the principle of falsification: if a method can be stated in a way that certain definite result will cause it to be proved to be wrong, then it is called scientific. Pseudo-knowledge and pseudoscience operate and spread through non-falsification—just like astrology, we cannot prove whether they are correct or incorrect, because there is never a condition that they are proven to be false.