Mental Models

Luck-Skill Continuum

(Extracted from The Success Equation – Michael J. Mauboussin) There’s a quick and easy way to test whether an activity involves skill: ask whether you can lose on purpose. … When your undertaking involves a...

September 8, 2019| Randomness Read More

How to do a Fermi Estimate?

(Extracted from Wikipedia) An example problem, of a type generally attributed to Fermi, is “How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?” A typical solution to this problem involves multiplying a...

September 8, 2019| Fermi Estimate Read More

The Yin-Yang Balance of Status Quo and Innovation

(Excerpt from The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky) Typically, the type A “doers” on the team are the powerful antibodies that extinguish new ideas that put time lines and budgets at risk. In contrast, the wide-eyed...

September 8, 2019| People, Yin Yang Read More

Contrarianism is rarely right

(Extracted from Learning to Embrace the Chaos & The End of History Illusion by Ben Carlson) Being a contrarian is one of the most seductive positions to take because it allows you to feel like you’re smarter...

September 8, 2019| Inversion Read More

Mental Models

We don’t see reality as it is. We form perceptions about how the world works.Like a map that tries to represent territories.Being cognitive misers, we rely on heuristics, making shortcuts in our thinking...

September 8, 2019| Mental Models Read More

Hack away the unessential

“It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential.” Bruce Lee...

September 8, 2019| Via Negativa Read More

Museum, not a warehouse

(Excerpt from Rework by Jason Fried) You don’t make a great museum by putting all the art in the world into a single room. That’s a warehouse. What makes a museum great is the stuff that’s not on the...

September 8, 2019| Via Negativa Read More

Systems learn by removing parts, via negativa.

(Excerpt from Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb) Many bad pilots, as we mentioned, are currently in the bottom of the Atlantic, many dangerous bad drivers are in the local quiet cemetery with nice walkways bordered by...

September 8, 2019| Via Negativa Read More

Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Strategy

(Excerpt from MayoOshin.com)  A few years ago, before an airplane takeoff, Warren Buffett walked up to the pilot of his private jet, Mike Flint and jokingly said to him, “The fact that you’re still working for me,...

September 8, 2019| Via Negativa Read More

Don’t be stupid

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent. There must be some wisdom in the folk saying, ‘It’s the...

September 8, 2019| Via Negativa Read More

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