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The Science Behind Smarter Decision Making: 7 Mental Models To Know
Pareto’s Law
In anything we do, there’s always ~20% of activities that will deliver 80% of our desired results.
It’s easy to be wrapped up in ‘busy’ work without ever getting anything done. Pareto’s Law is a useful mental model to be more effective, rather than just be efficient.
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10/10/10 Rule
Before making a decision, considers how you’ll feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.
It’s easy to make short-term decisions that may be beneficial 10 minutes or 10 months from now, but these types of decisions usually don’t benefit us in the long-term. What’s harder is to make decisions that may not appear attractive or impactful in the short-term, but over time can have a positive impact in your life.
Pareto’s Law
In anything we do, there’s always ~20% of activities that will deliver 80% of our desired results.
It’s easy to be wrapped up in ‘busy’ work without ever getting anything done. Pareto’s Law is a useful mental model to be more effective, rather than just be efficient.
Parkinson’s Law
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. So try placing artificial time limitations.
If we’re given three hours to complete a task that normally would take an hour, we’ll find a way to fill those three hours. However, when we’re down to the final thirty minutes, we’re suddenly feeling the pressure to get things done.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Not all decisions are the same
The decisions we spend the most time on are rarely the most important ones.
The Decision Matrix
The Decision Matrix
- Irreversible and inconsequential
- Irreversible and consequential
- Reversible and inconsequential
- Reversible and consequential
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Jeff Bezos's Regret-minimization framework
Thinking about your potential regrets give you clarity. It al...
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Mental Models
The way you look at how something works in the real world is called a mental model. It’s your thinking framework about something.
But when we make decisions, we often don’t think about our fr...
Overlooking Failure
Societies with a bias towards success, that are idolizing of successful people usually overlook the decisions that led to failure.
We tend to overlook cases that did not come with a successful outcome. And when we do look at failure, we are often quick to explain why things failed.
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The modern polymath
... is someone who becomes competent in at least 3 diverse domains and integrates them into a top 1-percent skill set.
In another words, they bring the best of what humanity has discov...
Creating an atypical combination of 2+ skills
Even if you're merely competent in these skills, combining them can lead to a world-class skill set.
Example: Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, one of the most popular comic strips of all time, was not the funniest person, not the best cartoonist, and not the most experienced employee. But by combining his humor and illustration skills while focusing on business culture, he became the best in the world in his niche.
Creative breakthroughs
Most creative breakthroughs come via making atypical combinations of skills.
Researcher Brian Uzzi, a professor at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, analyzed more than 26 million scientific papers going back hundreds of years and found that the most impactful papers often have teams with atypical combinations of backgrounds.
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