Herbert Simon quote on the value of mental models
“One can train a man so that he has at his disposal a list or repertoire of the possible actions that could be taken under the circumstances…A person who is new at the game does not have immediately at his disposal a set of possible actions to consider, but has to construct them on the spot – a time-consuming and difficult mental task.
The decision maker of experience has at his disposal a checklist of things to watch out for before finally accepting a decision. A large part of the difference between the experienced decision maker and the novice in these situations is not any particular intangible like “judgment” or “intuition.” If one could open the lid, so to speak, and see what was in the head of the experienced decision-maker, one would find that he had at his disposal repertoires of possible actions; that he had checklists of things to think about before he acted; and that he had mechanisms in his mind to evoke these, and bring these to his conscious attention when the situations for decisions arose.
Most of what we do is to get people ready to act in situations of encounter consists of drilling in these lists into them sufficiently deeply so that they will be evoked quickly at the time of the decision.” –Herbert Simon, Models of My Life
- On Checklists And Not Being Stupid...
From Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor: A lattice approach is, in effect, a double-check on the investing process. But instead of just two checks, you are checking the result over and over. Munger believes that by going over your decision-making process...
- Charlie Munger: The Importance Of Multiple Mental Models
From Poor Charlie's Almanack, and what I think is the single most important idea I carry with me when it comes to going through life: You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely--all of them, not just a few. Most people...
- Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule - By Paul Graham
I came across this in Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Ryan Holiday (HERE), who just wrote the book The Obstacle Is the Way. While not listed in the show notes on the site, Holiday also mentioned an article from my friend Shane over at Farnam Street, of which...
- Sam Harris Asks Daniel Kahneman A Few Questions
Much of your work focuses on the limitations of human intuition. Do you have any advice about when people should be especially hesitant to trust their intuitions? When the stakes are high. We have no reason to expect the quality of intuition to improve...
- Gary Klein On Insight
Found via Simoleon Sense. What's the tradeoff between people using their experience (people using the knowledge they've gained, and the expertise that they've developed), versus being able to just follow steps and procedures? We know from...