Mental frameworks, also called mental models, are incredibly important. They are absolutely required to transform ginormous amounts of information about the world into understandable, organized chunks. Simply put, they are the tools to process information and make decisions. The better choices you make, the better are the actions you make. These actions compound with time and bring you to a significantly better future you might otherwise have.
Mental models, however, are not without imperfections. Like any tool, each framework has its own limitations in applicability. Therefore the more mental models are at your command – the better.
Below are some of the more general models.
1. The map is not the territory, even the best maps are imperfect.
The expression first appeared in print in “A Non-Aristotelian System and its Necessity for Rigour in Mathematics and Physics”, a paper that Alfred Korzybski gave at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 28, 1931. The same thought was later expressed by Alan Watts in “The Spirit of Zen” as “The menu is not the meal”.
The metaphor describes the relationship between abstraction derived from a thing and the thing itself. Ironically, this model fits perfectly with the relationship between a model (which we discuss here) and reality.
It could be argued that all of our scientific theories, mathematics, and, as an example, the idea of God are conceptual maps often confused “for the terrain” they attempt to explain.
It should also be noticed that the usefulness of the map has little to do with how detailed the map is – 1 to 1 map is completely useless – and everything to do with how efficient it is in representing the structure of the terrain.
In this sense, a society that believes that new born shouldn’t be shown to others for a period after being born could have just as valid a “map” for public health as one that substituted danger of microbes brought from the street for evil eye.
Obviously, it could and should be used in a business context as well. Most companies have some sort of business plan, budget, and other similar documents, which, in fact, are primitive, even if sometimes daunting to calculate, models of a small piece of reality. And as it is the case with any other model, one should always expect some degree of deviation, understand how it should be tracked, and prepare to act accordingly.
This concept seems to be self-explanatory but forgotten all too often.
2. Understand your circle of competence.
Before going into any further details, let’s discuss what a circle of competence is.
Every single one of us has specific skills and expertise. If you have a Ph.D., your circle of competence might include things like chemistry or history, nuances of different metals of cultures. If you have no education at all, you might have a better understanding of car engines or cooking. None of these skill sets is innately better than the other, it is how well you can apply those which defines everything. Each person also has limits to his own circle of competence, even if he is the most genius person in the history of mankind.
Another point worth knowing is that each person has it easier to gain competence in some areas and harder to get better at others. It depends on gender, age, personality traits, and other factors.
We do know our gender and age, it might be somewhat more challenging to understand what precisely are our personality traits. For this reason, it might make sense to test yourself in Big Five Personality Traits as it is quite practical. As a result, you could derive some of your potentially weak or strong points in your circle of competencies.
For example, Innovation (adopting innovative approaches to solving problems) has a strong correlation with Openness, Process Management (planning, organization, and timeliness) correlate with Conscientiousness.
Age could explain shift from fluid, inductive, intelligence which is responsible for solving problems in novel situations to crystallized intelligence used to deduce the solution from experience and previous knowledge. Both are important, but if you want to sustain your level of fluid intelligence, you have to do so actively, it’s impossible to keep it passively.
Taking into account your own life experience and previous two paragraphs, you should be able to list what you think you know, your supposed circle of competence.
The next step would be slashing it with Dunning – Kruger ax. Dunning – Kruger effect could be explained this way: the less people know, the more they overestimate their competence, the more people know, the more they underestimate their degree of expertise.
As a side note, high social status also contributes to overestimating one’s ability. The good thing is that usually deviation is not that big, and with time and effort self-assessment becomes more precise. An excellent way to diminish this effect would be to form a habit of asking for feedback from your peers, subordinates and superiors, and take it very seriously. If you ignore feedback, it will discourage people from replying honestly. Why bother if you don’t even want it, right?
Once you understand your skill set, it makes your business and personal life much more comfortable. Avoiding pitfalls associated with things you are not competent in is much easier and more effective than pretending to be some kind of genius, which chances are you are not.
If you do understand how bonds work but know nothing about Forex, don’t invest in Forex. Yes, potentially Forex might be more profitable, but in practice, you would only lose money. If you are standing on a cliff before an abyss – avoid making a step forward, build a bridge instead – learn first. At least enough to not lose everything. Venturing into the unknown would mean you would still lose something, but at least the degree would be controlled.
It is also quite clear that this mental model’s limitation is that sometimes we just have to do things we know very little about, but choose those wisely. Or, if you are not in a position to choose, at least have a good enough explanation to yourself why it is worth it and brace for an impact.
The last point I want to make on this is to use your circle of competence not only to avoid pitfalls but to develop yourself. Let’s say you are an outstanding engineer or software developer, good enough to create a business out of it. Very often competence in these fields is followed by weakness in interpersonal relationships. This weakness could be different from person to person: naivety at how personal relationships work could lead to your co-founder leaving the company or, on the contrary, backstabbing you. Try to remedy these weaknesses consciously. Read, practice, get better at this.
(More to follow).
