Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
Understanding the importance of decision-making
Identifying biases that affect decision-making
Analyzing the potential outcomes of a decision
Conceptual models
A conceptual model is the underlying belief structure about how something works.
For example, on many computers, the process of dragging and dropping files into a folder seems simple because people already understand physical files and folders. But understanding it is only possible because of an effective conceptual model. A computer does not have files and folders and will store data in multiple places.
The complexity of a structure is all in the mind. When we want something to be simpler, we only need a better conceptual model of it.
191
823 reads
MORE IDEAS ON THIS
The conservation of complexity
To do a difficult thing in the simplest way, we need a lot of options. When looking an any set of tools for a task, such as a digital photo editing program, a novice will see complexity. A professional sees a range of different tools, each of which is easy to use. They know h...
187
641 reads
Every functionality requires control
The more complex something is, the more controls it needs, whether visible or invisible to the user.
- From the user's view, products and services are automated. If you stay at an expensive hotel, your room is always as you want it. The staff handles the complexity beh...
169
519 reads
Tesler’s law of the conservation of complexity
"The total complexity of a system is a constant. If you make a user’s interaction with a system simpler, the complexity behind the scenes increases."
209
1.05K reads
Wanting a simpler life
When we desire a simpler life, we normally mean we want products and services to have fewer steps, fewer controls, fewer options, less to consider. But we also want all the features and capabilities. These two ideas are often at odds.
Life can be really complicated. We fac...
179
1.21K reads
Lessons from the conservation of complexity
- How simple something looks is not a reflection of how simple it is to use. If complexity is a constant, then there are trade-offs.
- Things don't always need to be very simple for users. When a product or service is too simple, users can feel robbed of control. We should recognize th...
181
632 reads
CURATED FROM
CURATED BY
Related collections
More like this
Combine diffused and focused learning
Leveraging diffused and focused learning is key to truly understanding something. You learn chunks through the focused model, and you develop the broader conceptual map using the diffuse way of thinking.
First, learn the basic outline or core structure, then fil...
25. Hacker
- Hacking is one of the most commonly misunderstood skills.
- In practice, hacking is mostly about understanding that there is often a more complicated layer of instructions which a simpler layer is built on top.
- The computer sits in hi...
Digital hoarding and online storage
Platforms like Google Drive are “open temptations” for hoarding because they make it so easy for us to accumulate files and almost never prompt us to review them, The sense that something is retrievable if we just store it somewhere provides a false sense of security. And there’s plenty of storag...
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving & library
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Personalized recommendations
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates