Shane Parrish

What separates good thinkers from great thinkers is:

1) The number of mental models at their disposal;
2) The accuracy of those models; and
3) How quickly they update them when they're wrong.

The leverage you have may not always be the leverage you want, but chances are, if you look, you will find you have some somewhere.

Every ordinary moment is an opportunity to make the future easier or harder. It all depends on whether you’re thinking clearly.

What happens in ordinary moments determines your future. We’re taught to focus on the big decisions, rather than the moments where we don’t even realize we’re making a choice. Yet these ordinary moments often matter more to our success than the big decisions. This can be difficult to appreciate.

«Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking.»
Carl Sagan

When things happen in accord with our view of the world we naturally think they are good for us and others. When they conflict with our views, they are wrong and bad. But the world is smarter than we are and it will teach us all we need to know if we’re open to its feedback — if we keep our feet on the ground.

In life and business, the person with the fewest blind spots wins.

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.

Most people go through life assuming that they’re right … and that people who don’t see things their way are wrong.

the description of the thing is not the thing itself. The model is not reality. The abstraction is not the abstracted.

So much advantage in life comes from being willing to look like an idiot over the short term.

The ego default: we tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy.

Why mental models? There is no system that can prepare us for all risks. Factors of chance introduce a level of complexity that is not entirely predictable. But being able to draw on a repertoire of mental models can help us minimize risk by understanding the forces that are at play. Likely consequences don’t have to be a mystery.

Brag less, create more. Distract less, learn more. Gossip less, produce more. Take less, give more. Hate less, love more.

Too often we get stuck in “functional fixedness,” a mindset where we see in things only their intended use, rather than their potential use.