The Great Mental Models Volume 2 - Physics, Chemistry and Biology
Summary
- Continuation of The Great Mental Models Vol 1 - Shane Parrish. This one covers Physics, Chemistry and Biology and how these principles apply in real life
How I discovered it
- I have always followed fs.blog and Shane Parrish, and everything he puts out is well thought out and thought provoking
How the book changed me
- I never thought of applying lessons and principles from sciences to real life. But they are really practical.
Details
- In life, it pays to forgive
- Loss Aversion
- The principle of reciprocity applies in human interactions
- Trying to control information often backfires
- Speed towards his goal helped Napoleon win battles
- Leaders who are interested in the welfare of their people are more effective motivators
- Keep other people wanting what you have
- Activation energy required to start or change behaviour
- Louis XV changed houses from mere display to be comfortable and homely
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Adaptability - Do what you can, with what you have, where you are
- Keystone species - they may be few but are pivotal to the entire ecosystem
- Law of the minimum - the yield of a crop will be dictated by the essential nutrient available at the lowest level
- Commanders intent - formulate, communicate, interpret and implement
- Replicate with enough flexibility to change the copy to meet your needs
- Cooperation is better than competition
- Democracy is based on millions of people acting in their own short term self-interest
- Affect Heuristic - decisions by emotion
Quotes
- It is good to know something of the customs of various peoples, so as to judge our own more soundly - Descartes
- You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement - J.D. Salinger
- For, like a mass in Newton’s first law of motion, once our minds are set in a direction, they tend to continue in that direction unless acted on by some outside force - Leonard Mlodinow