breaking mental models

I never thought I’d say this but I find tremendous value in processes, and routines, and mental models.

Everyone has a different skillset.  And as I was thinking this morning about what I do that really adds value in situations is I take disparate things from different places, create connections and apply those connections across fields.  For example, how skills in business are like skills in hockey.  Or how optimizing your accounting for something looks a lot like optimizing your advertising.

I realized the higher level of this is not just learning the lessons, it is refining into models that can be used and applied in different situations.  That is the evolution of what I can do.

There are others, such as the late Charlie Munger, and Shane Parish from the knowledge project (although he made connections in some cases where there were none), and Alex Hormozi, who emphasizes not only the making of models, but thinking about how to break them.  That’s taking it to the next level.  Where you understand the limitations of the model, and know where it can be expanded, or refined.

How do you do this?  You use first principles to break the model down to it’s core foundational principles.  Then rebuild to your current solution from there.  If you are testing a theory, or a thought, or an application of a fix that seems to work across the board, ask yourself: How applicable us that solution in situation one, situation two, situation three?  How often do they prove out to be accurate?

How can you make the model you are working on so they work in most situations, and the exceptions are few and far between?  He also talks about how people speak in facts, as though they know the answer, and are 100% sure of it.

That kind of confidence is useful, and annoying when it’s wrong.

So being humble, and yet perceptive, is interesting to me.  That kind of mastery, along with developing those models that can be used across the board (for the most part) is amazing.

So the question is, how do I do more of that?  How do I master that skill?

How would you?