Contemporary · Mental Models · Infographic

16 Mental Models to Sharpen Your Thinking

Unattributed compilation · 2026

"A compact reference of sixteen widely-used mental models — spanning economics, psychology, and systems thinking — intended as a checklist to apply against a decision rather than a single unifying theory."

The idea

A mental model is only useful the moment you actually reach for it. A list like this is a reminder of which tool exists for which kind of problem.

Why it works

The takeaway — recall it first

5 Mental Models to Remove (Some of) the Confusion from Parenting

"Rather than adopting rigid parenting tactics that may not fit your specific child, five underlying principles — adaptation, velocity, algebraic equivalence, seizing the middle, and inversion — generalize across any family, situation, or child, because they're principles rather than one-size-fits-all scripts."

Farnam Street (Shane Parrish) · EssayContinue→