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The Writing Life of a Tadpole

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The Writing Life of a Tadpole
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Articles I Like: Are ‘Learning Styles’ Real? – The Atlantic

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on April 16, 2018 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

In recent years, many educators have ratcheted up their attacks on the idea of people having “learning styles”. While it was in vogue for awhile, more and more research is suggesting it isn’t as compelling a theory as it once was thought to be. To me, it is more about a theory that resonates instinctively with people, and more a metaphor for approaches to learning – a descriptive paradigm, if you will – then a hard and fast “rule” or law, let alone a theory. So when I saw an Atlantic article aiming to debunk it further, I couldn’t help but click.

In the early ‘90s, a New Zealand man named Neil Fleming decided to sort through something that had puzzled him during his time monitoring classrooms as a school inspector. In the course of watching 9,000 different classes, he noticed that only some teachers were able to reach each and every one of their students. What were they doing differently? Fleming zeroed in on how it is that people like to be presented information. For example, when asking for directions, do you prefer to be told where to go or to have a map sketched for you?

Today, 16 questions like this comprise the VARK questionnaire that Fleming developed to determine someone’s “learning style.” VARK, which stands for “Visual, Auditory, Reading, and Kinesthetic,” sorts students into those who learn best visually, through aural or heard information, through reading, or through “kinesthetic” experiences.

Basically the idea that everyone is relatively unique, but if you break them into sub-types for learning, you can reach them better by using techniques that target that sub-type. Yet the scientific evidence, i.e. the “testing” of the sub-types is less indicative:

…a lot of evidence suggests that people aren’t really one certain kind of learner or another. In a study published last month in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education, Husmann and her colleagues had hundreds of students take the VARK questionnaire to determine what kind of learner they supposedly were. The survey then gave them some study strategies that seem like they would correlate with that learning style. Husmann found that not only did students not study in ways that seemed to reflect their learning style, those who did tailor their studying to suit their style didn’t do any better on their tests.

[…]

Another study published last year in the British Journal of Psychology found that students who preferred learning visually thought they would remember pictures better, and those who preferred learning verbally thought they’d remember words better. But those preferences had no correlation to which they actually remembered better later on—words or pictures. Essentially, all the “learning style” meant, in this case, was that the subjects liked words or pictures better, not that words or pictures worked better for their memories.

Source: Are ‘Learning Styles’ Real? – The Atlantic

However, in the same article, it basically says it isn’t about “styles”, it is about skills. Some people are better at certain tasks than others, so they may think they’re a visual learner because they happen to be good at things that are visual. My problem though is that I’m not sold the idea fails with their “tests”.

All of them have the same methodological problem that the studies about “digital reading” vs. “paper-based reading” exercises and measures of retention. Basically, the studies conclude that if two students read the same text, one on paper and one electronically, the one who read paper will remember better. Which I can practically guarantee will happen with the test they’re running…they’re taking a text that was designed for paper reading, converted it to e-format, and then ran the test.

But what is the more appropriate test? Well, how about optimizing the text electronically first? Taking advantage of the e-format to embed other info or even use a font that looks better on e-format? There’s a reason why so much money and attention is paid to web design — layout and format matter, and it isn’t simply a matter of converting from paper to electronic. And did they first gauge how comfortable the person is with reading an e-text? The assumption is that the texts are the same, so the reader experiences no difference. Yet we all know modern day Luddites who might be adept at email, surfing, or texting, but they find the idea of e-readers abhorrent. They just don’t want them. Almost NONE of the tests asked what the student preferred to use. If you start off blocked and negative, would you expect the outcome to be different? People are used to paper, they don’t often “balk” at a paper text (except in purchase decisions).

To use the VARK idea, and downgrading it from a learning style to a communications style, we all know that personality types are generally accurate in groups but not so much individuals (all stereotypes, negative or positive, break down when you go from a group to an individual — the standard of deviation is enormous). So let’s look at the personality-type model that resonates the most with me — the axis of introverts/extroverts vs. analytical/intuitive.

Analytical introverts (the blues) have a very clear preferred communications style — they want details. They analyse, they nuance, they want to get their fingers dirty poking the content so they understand it. Preferably, they get paper and read it on their own and they have it before they discuss it together.

Reds, i.e. analytical extroverts, are action-oriented and while they want details, what they really want are the KEY details — they prefer high-level summaries and overviews with minimal back-ground noise. Be brief, be bright, be gone. Don’t waste their time.

Yellows, i.e. intuitive extroverts, want interaction, team work, FUN. They want to discuss the information. Sitting quietly and reading the book by themself is tantamount to torture.

Greens, i.e. intuitive introverts, also want to be “involved” in small-group discussions. A bit quieter than the yellows, and preferably with some say in how they decide what to study or how to proceed.

Those personality studies have been studied to death and for about 60% of the population, they have pretty strong validity. Another 20% end up straddling types. Which leaves 20% where, in my view, they suffer from two measurement problems — about half don’t know themselves well enough to answer the questions reliably (they’re following scripts of what they THINK they should say, not describing what they actually do) and half who are balanced across multiple categories. It doesn’t mean the theory of personality types is wrong, it just means it isn’t universal when you apply to individuals. Quelle surprise.

So what might that look like in terms of learning styles? Well, if the four groups have differences in their preferred communications styles, would it be surprising that they have a different way of learning? Not really, it should be expected. So the test would have to be optimised first for EACH learning style.

But even then, it’s not going to be 1:1 for every person on every item for every subject. Not unlike the phrase that talking about love is like dancing about architecture, reading about art isn’t very useful without pictures of the actual artwork. Equally, if a picture is worth a thousand words, historical video footage of events is far more compelling and easy to “understand” as the students witness.

Is that true for everyone? Nope. Some are going to respond to the text more than the pictures, pictures over video, and video over text, or the reverse such as text over video.

Ultimately the benefit of the theory is not in saying everyone has a different style and targeting the individual, although some day we may be able to do that better. Instead, the benefit of the theory is recognizing what everyone has already known. Mixed teaching techniques, judiciously applied, work better than a single technique of one-size fits all.

But that’s just my view. What do YOU think? Do you learn differently from a friend or sibling? Or do you believe one can find a perfect way to deliver info for a topic or subject area that is applicable to all?


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 10

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 10, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 10, 2018  

Chapter 10 is interesting in that it goes in an entirely different direction — not the use of a Walmart by another big retailer, or a completely different business, or a community group even. Instead, it focuses on the reuse in Kentucky to open a mini-mall of second-hand stores. Micro-businesses, in the parlance, or in this case, flea markets.

But with an innovative twist — a central check-out. All the vendors sell their wares just as Walmart has little divisions. Yet they are no competition for Walmart, so Walmart loves them. How many individual vendors? One store had over 300. The central checkout handles all the finances for them, along with most of the transactional paperwork. I think it is brilliant. Ripe for disruption, of course, but brilliant.

And the store renovation is as minimal as they can make it…splash some paint and they are good to go. Nobody cares, they just want an indoor space to sell their goods. The lower the overhead, the better. Even some of the original signage is still in place.

In the long run, however, the mini-malls are doomed to fail…once the main lease runs out, and the lease restrictions ease, larger retailers can come in, take the space, and increase the revenue for the site owner, just as it did with the race track in an earlier chapter. Yet, in the meantime, it’s a very different way to take over the space.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 9

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 10, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 10, 2018  

Chapter 9 is a somewhat starker chapter, as it looks at Chalmette, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. And it isn’t like the other chapters, as it is not really about reuse of an abandoned building.

Instead, it is the use of the Walmart parking lot — the only local place large enough to hold a small medical centre made up of a series of large double-wide trailers all connected together. Supported by non-profits, for-profits, religious groups, FEMA and Walmart, it got going in the aftermath of Katrina, and at the time of writing (3 years afterwards), it was still running, while the Walmart remained closed. Walmart even let them open a small pharmacy onsite to meet local needs.

However, what I find interesting and for which I wish there was more coverage in the book (admittedly, it is beyond her scope), is the description of how Walmart used its existing large distribution network to help relief efforts. Not unlike nationalization of some industries back in WWI and WWII, from the descriptions.

Yet in the end, the main reason for their use of the parking lot? Location, location, location — it has good transport networks leading to it, everyone can get to it, and it’s easy to find. The same reasons any user would choose the same location.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 8

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 10, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 10, 2018  

Chapter 8 struck me as the oddest of all — converting a Walmart into a chapel in Pinellas Park, Florida. Now, admittedly, it’s a Calvary Chapel plus a whole bunch of other things, not your traditional wayside chapel of Catholicism, for example. Yet, when you realize that the parishioners are not “local neighbourhood” residents, but cross the county, it isn’t surprising that they would choose a building with built-in parking and a virtually unlimited size meeting space (i.e. auditorium). How big a congregation? Services for 700-1000 at a time are for slow days, normal hits at about 1500, and potentially 3300 are part of the congregation.

When Walmart was looking to vacate their space, the Calvary Chapel was already in a smaller old Winn-Dixie store. They bid on the new space, and Walmart agreed. The part I find a bit confusing in the story is that the author seems a bit puzzled about Walmart’s decision, even though there were potentially higher bidders. The Chapel credits divine intervention; the authors wonders if it was PR, or that the Chapel had a good business reputation for reuse, etc. Yet the author already spoke of the most likely reasons way back in the earliest chapters — when Walmart vacates, they want to know that whoever takes over the space is not going to compete with them for business. And they often have huge lease and/or sale restrictions to prevent it. With the Chapel? No such concerns.

The renovation is extensive, of course. Even the roof has been modified to have a huge patio. Inside, they have sports areas (courts for basketball, dodgeball, etc.), recreation areas (pool tables on a second floor), some small theatres, lots of offices, some educational spaces for schooling, etc. And of course, a temporary auditorium for 1500.

I can’t help but feel there is some irony between products for the masses and a commercial approach to religion, but that is my own upbringing showing through I suppose. But the renovation of the exterior wasn’t a big concern for the church, they are all about the congregation and having a tool to help serve them, not the extensive aesthetics.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 7

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 10, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 10, 2018  

Chapter 7 looks at an old KMart building, now repurposed as a county library in Lebanon, Missouri. The building is shared with a museum and a cafe. What I love about this example is a quote on page 146:

But the fact is, basically everyone in the community of Lebanon really was involved in the renovation and design of this site. Public school students designed and painted the murals, local electricians designed systems and wired light fixtures, local artisans laid carpet and even designed mosaic tile floors for the hallways. The community here came out for the cause, donating time, money and services to the development of its new county library.

Is that unusual? No, of course not. Lots of towns have done the same thing with recreation centres, or libraries, or museums. What I find compelling is that reusing a box building rarely attracts the creative types, unless the option is to raze it and start over. Yet in this case, the building had some really key selling points — way more space than the library needed, way cheaper than building from scratch, and the previous owner was a school board who could transfer title to them easily (they donated it, after receiving it as a gift themselves). And initially, the reaction would be what you would expect. Everyone wanted a beautiful beacon, a shiny new library, and what they had was an empty KMart. Not much to inspire the community, right?

But a core planning group built street buzz, the local newspaper and radio got on board, and the project focused on having a quick, early win — making sure the facade didn’t look like Kmart. In this case, they used metal in red, blue and yellow to give it a wholly modern look. They gave early tours, when it was still chalk outlines. They designed and merged the concepts for a museum and cafe, tied to learning, tied to local history. They have free meeting rooms for community groups.

Or as the author claims, it went from a community institution to a community centre. One that doesn’t look like Kmart.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 6

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 10, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 10, 2018  

Chapter 6 looks at repurposing a Kmart building in Austin, Minnesota into a combination museum and corporate headquarters/office space. Unlike previous examples in the book, this one was done as a design competition between four architectural firms with relatively open-ended paramaters.

In the end, there has been extensive renovation of the exterior lands and surfaces. Interestingly, however, the lack of exterior light made the interior designs for the museum actually work better — they had total control over the look and feel of the exhibits, including lighting. For the office area though, large windows were cut, and skylights added. And, everything in the office space is movable. Walls, furniture, everything. Giving them a healthy amount of dynamism.

Overall, though, the most interesting part was that while they kept the “building” structure, the resulting look and feel makes it look like anything BUT a big box store. Different roofs with slopes, bricks added to the exterior, etc., all hide the original look and feel. Yet the building is relatively the same place, at least structurally.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 5

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 8, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 8, 2018  

Chapter 5 looks at a Head Start program in Hastings, Nebraska. The initial catalyst was unusual — the original location (an old hardware store) was wiped out by a tornado and the local community was growing rapidly through immigration, outstripping the original need. The program needed a new location, and an empty Kmart building was available.

Part of what I found interesting in this chapter were the complicated real estate deals in place…a commercial company owned the building, Kmart owned the lease, and a local man owned the land. So, Kmart would rent the space and pay the company, who would then pay the local man. A tri-partite “ownership” of sorts for the property, making it more complicated if someone wanted to buy. Who is selling to them? All three or just one or two? In the end, it was all three. A local company bought all three components (essentially land, building and tenancy), and then “flipped” it to someone else. In this case, the Head Start program.

The other part that I found interesting was the importance of the location. Just as Kmart wanted a busy intersection, easily accessible, so too does a program that serves the city and county. Like the previous chapter, they want a good location to serve lots of people for ease of access.

And finally, they can rent out extra space to groups that are efficient or effective, or just plain synergistic, for their own mandate — other educational services — while still giving them lots of flexibility in design.


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Reading “Big Box Reuse” by Julia Christensen – Chapter 4

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 7, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 7, 2018  

Chapter 4 starts a second section of the book dealing with networks, particularly with the idea that the location is not just the “store shell” so much as the building, a parking lot, and beyond…the whole background.

This Chapter did a quick overview of three Charter schools in Buffalo (NY), Charlotte (NC), and Laramie (WY), most of which want to fly under the radar — two of the spoke only on the question of anonymity, although they were happy to give tours, etc. What I found particularly interesting with these examples was that they started with a relatively new entity — the fledgling school — looking for a site to lease. They didn’t have the money to buy, couldn’t build, etc. and basically didn’t have the full capital to take on the whole project at once. As a startup, they could commit to a lease, and then grow the business and organization towards later purchase.

Some of the aspects that were not immediately obvious:

  1. Repurposing an old vacant school was often an obvious and alternate choice, but with challenges for renovations to bring them up to code for electricity, plumbing, etc.;
  2. The Walmart or Kmart sites were immediately fully accessible for persons with disabilities, with options for everything on a single floor, wide hallways, etc.;
  3. Lighting was often an issue for interior rooms, so design often defaulted to hollow squares where the centre could be a gym or cafeteria, leaving the classrooms around exterior walls where windows could be cut out; and,
  4. While the big box stores were up to code, often the plumbing for washrooms were limited to a couple of areas and the plumbing was buried in concrete, so extra trenches have to be dug early to reach the extra requirements for a school.

I also found the idea of community not an obvious element, not so much of the Big Box, but of the nature of a Charter school. Since they are not limited to geographic catch-basins (like neighbourhoods for typical schools) but rather open to the entire city to attend, transport often becomes incredibly important. Meaning the extra parking spots for drop-off and pick-up make things much easier. Equally, because so many of the kids need transport-by-parents, the Schools need to offer extensive before- and after-school care, way more than normal schools. Which means they need spaces for that to function. However, contrasting that, many “blended” families or non-cohesive families (divorced parents with shared custody for example, living in different areas of the city) find the option great, since they don’t all live in a single “local” neighbourhood.

Overall, though, I think it was the “initial lease” and the ability to build as they grow which made it so interesting. In some cases, walls around the interior school belied the fact that behind was just empty “open” warehouse-like space…ready for the next round of school rooms to be built or a gym or a special area for technology, automotive, or creative arts, all of which can be built and worked on without disrupting the rest of the school — the school can be open while other renovations are going on. Our son’s school has just gone through massive renovations within an existing space, and it really disrupted life around them. But once they reached a certain critical mass, the last areas were empty spaces that could be worked on separately. Unfortunately, that required moving some kids to portables, something that doesn’t need to happen in a Big Box that can just build, build, build inside. Plus they are doing it inside, even when weather is bad. Certainly a totally different project than trying to renovate an old abandoned public school.


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Articles I Like: The Law of Unintended Consequences: Shakespeare, Cobra Breeding, and a Tower in Pisa

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 4, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 4, 2018  

This is another article from Farnam Street, and I confess up until a few days ago, I’d never heard of them. Run by a guy named Shane Parrish, he’s based here in Ottawa. Some really fascinating stuff on there, with decent curation and a lot of links. This article highlights that:

Not all of our grand schemes turn out like we planned. In fact, sometimes things go horribly awry. In this article, we tackle unintended consequences and how to minimize them in our own decision making.

Source: The Law of Unintended Consequences: Shakespeare, Cobra Breeding, and a Tower in Pisa

You might think that the article is going to be about train wreck ideas or the butterfly effect causing tsunamis. Not really. In fact, I would say it is more about linear thinking from good intentions to good outcomes, without taking into account side effects. Some unknown, some unforeseeable, some just missed because they stopped thinking early. The article has a great quote from a book by William A. Sherden:

Sometimes unintended consequences are catastrophic, sometimes beneficial. Occasionally their impacts are imperceptible, at other times colossal. Large events frequently have a number of unintended consequences, but even small events can trigger them. There are numerous instances of purposeful deeds completely backfiring, causing the exact opposite of what was intended.

The conclusion is simple — systems thinking or second-order thinking is needed, but the article doesn’t pay much attention to the fact that often the culprit lies in defining the system too narrowly, when in fact the small system is part of a larger system, and it is the larger system that often has the other effects (like the examples of releasing a predator into a land to control one local population, not realizing that the predator will spread into the larger system). What I do like is the idea that sometimes the failure is in over-estimating the size of the system, assuming there are too many variables, and thus not trying at all to figure out ancillary effects.

Yet, if we know they exist (or in hindsight think we should have), the article explains some of the most common reasons:

Sociologist Robert K. Merton has identified five potential causes of consequences we failed to see:

  • Our ignorance of the precise manner in which systems work.
  • Analytical errors or a failure to use Bayesian thinking (not updating our beliefs in light of new information).
  • Focusing on short-term gain while forgetting long-term consequences.
  • The requirement for or prohibition of certain actions, despite the potential long-term results.
  • The creation of self-defeating prophecies (for example, due to worry about inflation, a central bank announces that it will take drastic action, thereby accidentally causing crippling deflation amidst the panic).

However, the article goes even further, adding in over-reliance on models and predictions (mistaking the map for the territory), survivorship bias, the compounding effect of consequences, denial, failure to account for base rates, curiousity, or the tendency to want to do something.

Of course, the article leads to the article I shared earlier (Articles I Like: Mental Models – The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (113 Models Explained)), and the use of other mental models to help prevent a failure to consider other effects.

Cool stuff, love the site.


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Articles I Like: Mental Models – The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (113 Models Explained)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on March 3, 2018 by PolyWoggMarch 3, 2018  

If you’re interested in goals and theory the way I am, then an article about “cross-training for the mind” and different ways of thinking in various disciplines is like catnip. When I saw the article, and that it was going to work through 113 different mental models, I couldn’t NOT click on that bait. In fact, their goal in the article is based on the following:

The overarching goal is to build a powerful “tree” of the mind with strong and deep roots, a massive trunk, and lots of sturdy branches. We use this tree to hang the “leaves” of experience we acquire, directly and vicariously, throughout our lifetimes: the scenarios, decisions, problems, and solutions arising in any human life.

Source: Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (113 Models Explained)

The more mental models you have, the more roots and branches you have to build on. What types of models? How about:

General Thinking Concepts (11)

  1. Inversion
  2. Falsification / Confirmation Bias
  3. Circle of Competence
  4. The Principle of Parsimony (Occam’s Razor)
  5. Hanlon’s Razor
  6. Second-Order Thinking
  7. The Map Is Not the Territory
  8. Thought Experiments
  9. Mr. Market
  10. Probabilistic Thinking (See also: Numeracy/Bayesian Updating)
  11. Default Status

Numeracy (14)

  1. Permutations and Combinations
  2. Algebraic Equivalence
  3. Randomness
  4. Stochastic Processes (Poisson, Markov, Random Walk)
  5. Compounding
  6. Multiplying by Zero
  7. Churn
  8. Law of Large Numbers
  9. Bell Curve/Normal Distribution
  10. Power Laws
  11. Fat-Tailed Processes (Extremistan)
  12. Bayesian Updating
  13. Regression to the Mean
  14. Order of Magnitude

Systems (22)

  1. Scale
  2. Law of Diminishing Returns
  3. Pareto Principle
  4. Feedback Loops (and Homeostasis)
  5. Chaos Dynamics (Sensitivity to Initial Conditions)
  6. Preferential Attachment (Cumulative Advantage)
  7. Emergence
  8. Irreducibility
  9. Tragedy of the Commons
  10. Gresham’s Law
  11. Algorithms
  12. Fragility – Robustness – Antifragility
  13. Backup Systems/Redundancy
  14. Margin of Safety
  15. Criticality
  16. Network Effects
  17. Black Swan
  18. Via Negativa – Omission/Removal/Avoidance of Harm
  19. The Lindy Effect
  20. Renormalization Group
  21. Spring-loading
  22. Complex Adaptive Systems

Physical World (9)

  1. Laws of Thermodynamics
  2. Reciprocity
  3. Velocity
  4. Relativity
  5. Activation Energy
  6. Catalysts
  7. Leverage
  8. Inertia
  9. Alloying

The Biological World (15)

  1. Incentives
  2. Cooperation (Including Symbiosis)
  3. Tendency to Minimize Energy Output (Mental & Physical)
  4. Adaptation
  5. Evolution by Natural Selection
  6. The Red Queen Effect (Co-evolutionary Arms Race)
  7. Replication
  8. Hierarchical and Other Organizing Instincts
  9. Self-Preservation Instincts
  10. Simple Physiological Reward-Seeking
  11. Exaptation
  12. Extinction
  13. Ecosystems
  14. Niches
  15. Dunbar’s Number

Human Nature & Judgment (23)

  1. Trust
  2. Bias from Incentives
  3. Pavlovian Mere Association
  4. Tendency to Feel Envy & Jealousy
  5. Tendency to Distort Due to Liking/Loving or Disliking/Hating
  6. Denial 
  7. Availability Heuristic
  8. Representativeness Heuristic
    1. Failure to Account for Base Rates
    2. Tendency to Stereotype 
    3. Failure to See False Conjunctions
  9. Social Proof (Safety in Numbers)
  10. Narrative Instinct
  11. Curiosity Instinct
  12. Language Instinct
  13. First-Conclusion Bias
  14. Tendency to Overgeneralize from Small Samples
  15. Relative Satisfaction/Misery Tendencies
  16. Commitment & Consistency Bias
  17. Hindsight Bias
  18. Sensitivity to Fairness
  19. Tendency to Overestimate Consistency of Behavior (Fundamental Attribution Error)
  20. Influence of Authority
  21. Influence of Stress (Including Breaking Points)
  22. Survivorship Bias
  23. Tendency to Want to Do Something (Fight/Flight, Intervention, Demonstration of Value, etc.)

Microeconomics & Strategy (14)

  1. Opportunity Costs
  2. Creative Destruction
  3. Comparative Advantage
  4. Specialization (Pin Factory)
  5. Seizing the Middle
  6. Trademarks, Patents, and Copyrights
  7. Double-Entry Bookkeeping
  8. Utility (Marginal, Diminishing, Increasing)
  9. Bottlenecks
  10. Prisoner’s Dilemma
  11. Bribery
  12. Arbitrage
  13. Supply and Demand
  14. Scarcity

Military & War (5)

  1. Seeing the Front
  2. Asymmetric Warfare
  3. Two-Front War
  4. Counterinsurgency
  5. Mutually Assured Destruction

The article has lots of links to the models to explain them. It’s like a treasure-trove of mental improvement rabbit-holes. And perhaps the grounds for 113 new blog posts by me as I work through each of them! Mind-blowing.


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Posted in Goals, Ideas, Learning | Tagged analysis, goals, ideas, learning, mental models, motivation, thinking | Leave a reply

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