What are Principles and Mental Models?

What are Principles and Mental Models?

Principles

Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. They can be applied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals.

Every day, each of us is faced with a blizzard of situations we must respond to. Without principles we would be forced to react to all the things life throws at us individually, as if we were experiencing each of them for the first time. If instead we classify these situations into types and have good principles for dealing with them, we will make better decisions more quickly and have better lives as a result.

Having a good set of principles is like having a good collection of recipes for success. All successful people operate by principles.

Mental models

Mental Models are simplified representations, concepts, and frameworks that allow us to quickly understand ourselves and our world.

Everyone uses mental models to understand and act in a complex world. However, most do so unconsciously, using the same handful of models in every situation.

A mental model is nothing more than a pre-designed framework that you can pull out whenever a situation requires a decision. You just plug in the different variables and out pops an answer. And voila, just like that, you systematized a process of developing good judgment.

If we regularly tap into these frameworks, the quality of our decisions, and ultimately the results, will start to improve as well.