<ol><li>The more models you have—the bigger your toolbox—the more likely you are to have the right models to see reality. It turns out that when it comes to improving your ability to make decisions variety matters.</li><li>By default, a typical Engineer will think in systems. A psychologist will think in terms of incentives. A biologist will think in terms of evolution. If we’re only looking at the problem one way, we’ve got a blind spot. And blind spots can kill you.</li><li>Charlie Munger summed up mental models “Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts.”</li></ol>

Learning To Think Better

<ol><li>The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent. If a map were to represent the territory with perfect fidelity, it would no longer be a reduction and thus would no longer be useful to us. A map can also be a snapshot of a point in time, representing something that no longer exists.</li><li>When ego and not competence drives what we undertake, we have blind spots. If you know what you understand, you know where you have an edge over others. </li><li>First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer difficult times</li></ol>

Core Mental Models 

<ol><li>Thought experiments are powerful because they help us learn from our mistakes and avoid future ones. They let us take on the impossible, evaluate the potential consequences of our actions, and re-examine history to make better decisions. </li><li>Second-order thinking is thinking farther ahead and thinking holistically. It requires us to not only consider our actions and their immediate consequences, but the subsequent effects of those actions as well. </li><li>Probabilistic thinking is essentially trying to estimate, using some tools of math and logic, the likelihood of any specific outcome. </li></ol>

Core Mental Models- Continued

<ol><li>Occam’s Razor, a classic principle of logic and problem-solving. Instead of wasting your time trying to disprove complex scenarios, you can make decisions more confidently by basing them on the explanation that has the fewest moving parts.</li><li>Hanlon’s Razor states that we should not attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity. In a complex world, using this model helps us avoid paranoia and ideology.</li></ol>

More Core Mental Models

The smartest people in the world use mental models to make intelligent decisions, avoid stupidity, and increase productivity. Let's take a look at how ...

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

problemsolving

Problem Solving

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained) - Farnam Street

There are six sociosexual hierarchy ranks ranging from alpha to omega. One of them is Sigma. You may not hear as much about a sigma male as you do about alpha and beta males. But what is it about them that is underappreciated while also being extremely attractive?

11 Personality Traits Of A Sigma Male That Sets Them Apart

A Sigma male is someone who isn't interested in either being a leader or a follower. He is not the loud or aggressive person who tries to get everyone's attention in the room, nor is he the shy and introverted person who pretends not to exist in the room.

So, who exactly is a Sigma male?

<ol><li>He likes to fly solo and is very independent.</li><li>He has a mysterious personality.</li><li>He likes silence.</li><li>He lives life on the edge.</li><li>He is extremely smart.</li><li>He has a rebellious spirit.</li><li>He is never short of attention.</li><li>He has an abstract way of thinking.</li><li>He has his distinctive style.</li><li>He is a deep thinker.</li><li>He can adapt to anything.</li></ol>

Here Are 11 Characteristics of a Sigma Male That Sets Them Apart

Being with a Sigma male can be an extremely rewarding and enriching experience because it will completely broaden your horizons and cause you to see the world in a new light. To be honest, Sigma males are extremely rare and can be difficult to understand, but if you come across one, make a mental note of it.

A sigma male is a free spirit who dances to the drum of his own beat and is extremely self-aware and comfortable in his own skin.

communication

Communication

Given that it shares the same root word as “alone,” it’s easy to assume loneliness is just the absence of contact with other people.As Cacioppo explains in his book (Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick). loneliness is not merely a lack of human contact, but rather a lack of meaningful connection with other humans. It isn’t about the quantity of relationships, but rather the quality. This is why it’s possible to feel lonely even when you’re in a romantic relationship or have a large group of acquaintances.

What Is Loneliness?

To start, when we talk about the “pain” of loneliness, that’s more than just a metaphor. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have observed that the experience of social rejection activates the same region of the brain that “registers emotional responses to physical pain” . Being socially isolated might not be as imminently dangerous as a cut or burn, but the consequences can be just as serious over the long term.

The Pain of Loneliness

1. Don’t Blame Your Social SkillsWhen you’re feeling lonely, it’s easy to blame it on your lack of social skills. In general, though, a lack of social skills isn’t the issue. Rather, it’s that “feeling lonely makes us less likely to employ the skills we have” . accordingly to the book, loneliness is something that can happen to any of us. It doesn’t mean there’s anything weird or disordered about you – it’s an experience common to all humans. What matters, rather, is how you respond to loneliness, whether or not you use it as a catalyst to improve the depth of your connection with others.

6 things to do to be less lonely

Simply telling people to “connect more with others” isn’t very helpful on its own. This is especially true because each person’s genes are different.Therefore, don’t assume that you need to be super outgoing and have lots of social interactions to feel socially satisfied. You might well thrive with a small group of close friends whom you see once a week. On the other hand, your genes might predispose you to need more frequent social connection, and that’s fine too.

2. Assess How Much Connection You Need

<ol><li>Intimate connectedness: This is connection “up close and personal,” typically with a significant other.</li><li>Relational connectedness : This is the broader (but still close) connection you have with friends and family.</li><li>Collective connectedness –This type of connection describes belonging to a club, professional organization, or even an entire nation.</li></ol>In general, we need a healthy mix of the above types. However, note that this isn’t universally true. What matters, again, is that the types and level of social connection you have match your genetic preferences.

3. Recognize the 3 Different Types of Social Connection

Once you’ve resolved to become more connected with others, Cacioppo recommends finding opportunities “to get small doses of the positive sensations that come from positive social interactions”.Each positive interaction you have gives you further evidence that you can connect with others. This can then help you develop the confidence you need for deeper, more vulnerable forms of connection later on.One of the lowest-risk ways to get started is through volunteering , positive social interactions that can boost your confidence.

4. Extend Yourself (Slowly and Carefully)

When you start reaching out to people not every interaction will be a success. maybe its a small talk Or the passerby you smile at on the street may stare at the ground and keep moving. Interactions that turn out this way don’t mean you’re a failure, or that no one wants to talk to you. As Cacioppo says, “A million and one factors that have absolutely nothing to do with you can influence people’s moods and reactions” .So don’t use a couple of bad reactions as evidence that you can’t connect with people. Just move on and keep trying.

5. Have No Expectations

Throughout Loneliness , Cacioppo stresses that loneliness is not a mental disorder . At the same time, however, chronic loneliness can put you at risk for depression , and social anxiety can make it harder to connect with people in the first place.Therefore, I encourage you to seek the services of a mental health professional if you’re struggling with loneliness.Remember that whatever you’re struggling with, loneliness or otherwise, you don’t have to do it alone.

6. Seek Professional Help

What causes loneliness, and what can we do about it? This article examines the underlying science to answer both of these questions.

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

How to Be Less Lonely: 6 Science-Backed Techniques to Try

What makes morality unique is that a lot of times, people experience a moral judgment as a flash of intuition or feeling, good or bad. But underneath that feeling is complex moral psychological structure.We think that our morals are steadfast, as if they were set in stone or inscribed in ink, but it turns out our morals are far more fluid than we'd like to believe.Morality might seem like a compass needle, always guiding us north, but as we start to add information and context that trigger biases, the needle begins to spin.

Steadfast Morals, Flashes And Compasses

Moral cognition depends hugely on context, so if someone tells us about a person who helped a stranger, we would say they're much better than the person who helped their brother. But if that someone told us about a person who helped the stranger instead of their brother, we wouldn't think they're very good at all. It turned out through research that we really did that, that it was really people's intuitions about familial obligation that structured people's moral intuitions across all of these different cases.

Context Magnetizes The Morality Needle

We may say adultery is wrong, but if it's a friend who we know well, who had a troubled marriage, maybe we're more forgiving. We say stealing is wrong, but we might be more understanding of our favorite politician when they're caught lining their pockets. We do this all the time.The point is that there are lots of different contextual influences that contributes to people's moral judgments.

We Often Move The Needle Too

Morality has evolved with our species because of humans' practical and psychological need for social bonds, but even early human societies began codifying a morality into laws and norms that were meant to be applied universally.The evolutionary origin of morality is coordination or cooperation to help people get onto the same page by pointing to common normative principles that we can use to negotiate relationships, to organize interactions across many different social contexts.

Moral Laws Were Born To Facilitate And Advance Social Bonds

Back in evolutionary time, we didn't interact with others across the world; only with the people in our family, the people that we could see. It's because of that that we have developed these sorts of biases that have to do with social distance: we think that the harm that is being done up close and personal, right in front of us, matters more than the harm that is being done across an ocean.So it shouldn't surprise us that the biases our minds exhibit are pragmatic. The moral judgments we make about people close to us are more forgiving and nuanced than the judgments we make of strangers.

So, Moral Laws Treat Different Bonds Differently

When we examine the moral judgments of others, it's tempting to think that we live in different worlds, but there's only one. The challenge today is that our social contexts are far more global and complicated, so can our sense of tribal morality evolve to encompass people outside of our tribe?Studying moral psychology allows us access to others' perspectives, to the fact that others could have different values, and so just knowing that there is this complex space of moral psychology could help us to understand where other people are coming from.

There’s Still A Tribe. Just A Very, Very Big One. 

We're all connected in some way. Between any two people in the world, there's some common value or experience. Finding that commonality could be the best path towards a more morally-consistent world.

Let’s Find The Commonality And Fix Our Moral Compass

We rarely question our own moral compass. But do we really know what shapes it?

People rarely question their own moral compass. But do you know what shapes yours?

philosophy

Philosophy

mindfulness

Mindfulness

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Your Moral Compass Could Be Brocken

<ul><li>positive thinking expands my gratitude and reminds me what I value.</li><li>Negative thinking helps me look my pain and problems in the eye.</li></ul>To live a full life, I can’t ignore my appreciation or my problems. Both matter. Together, they give me an even-handed view of what’s happening, so I can decide what’s working and what’s not.Believing in positive or negative thinking at the exclusion of the other is extremism. ﻿

Positive  vs Negative thinking

Negative thinking is . . . a willingness to consider what is not working. What is not in balance? What have I ignored? What is my body saying no to?

Power of thinking is about trusting ourselves to “to face the full truth, whatever that full truth may turn out to be."<ul><li>Better to sit with my grief now than let it mutate into a menace as consequence at repercussions of repressing emotions.</li><li>We can’t have lights without shadows, fullness without emptiness, or joy without suffering. These elements complement one another.</li><li> “Always think positively!” trades this observable dynamic for a delusion.</li></ul>

What is the power of thinking

Believing in positive or negative thinking at the exclusion of the other is extremism.

The power of thinking

"It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?"

"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it."

"The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time."

"The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it."

"Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important."

Be mindful of your time. Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

timemanagement

Time Management

22 Time Management Quotes to Inspire You to Achieve Your Goals

Some invisible and repetitive habits are mostly responsible for our daily miseries. <ul><li>Overthinking</li><li>Worrying about the future and dwelling in the past</li><li>Monotonous Daily Routine</li></ul>

Habits that make us dull and unproductive

This is an invisible toxic habit and may go mostly unnoticed and may lead to: <ul><li>Time & Energy waste</li><li>Anxiety & productivity depletion</li><li>Attention span decrease</li><li>Emotional & Mental exhaustion</li><li>May manifest as physical symptoms like headaches, body aches, and digestive issues</li></ul>To overcome the overthinking habit, develop the habit of observing your thoughts.

Overthinking

Worrying about the Future or Dwelling on the past:<ul><li>The Past is over and we can only learn from it.</li><li>Focusing too much on the Future can lead to worry and anxiety.</li><li>By avoiding the NOW and denying the REAL, we miss taking the right steps and timely action.</li></ul>To overcome this habit, stay in the present and be mindful.

Living in Future or Past

A Monotonous Daily Routine results in <ul><li>No Scope for Creativity and Learning.</li><li>Inflexible routines can affect Mental health.</li><li>Spending too much time on low-value activities</li></ul>To break the monotony, learn a new hobby or a skill. Do something different creative more often.

Monotony

<ul><li>Observe your thoughts</li><li>Stay in the present moment</li><li>Learn new skills, cultivate hobbies</li></ul>

Summary of Tips 

Unknowingly we might be doing many things that are affecting our emotional and mental health. Read on to know what they are and how to overcome them.

habits

Habits

Mental health tips: 3 everyday habits that make us dull and unproductive

How to effectively communicate your design decisions to the stakeholders. The following are not only restricted to design

3 Ways To Effectively 

Answer the most important question when you prepare the presentation - what does the audience need to know and what they'll do with the information that you give

Focus On Audience 

Be clear on what is being shown and what specific parts the audience should pay attention too

Speak To Specifics, Not Generalization

Engage with the stakeholders rather than you talking yourself. For eg. For 30 mins presentation, split 10 mins for presentation and 20 mins for questions, clarifications or to share feedback

Present Less, Listen More 

Easier said than done. There’s considerable knowledge in designing something, and a designer develops awareness of the customer, business, constraints, potential solutions, and tradeoffs through…

teamwork

Teamwork

Three ways to more effectively present your designs

It’s about quality rather than quantity.So, what areas of personal growth do you like to improve?Take a look in your vegetable patch and see what’s growing there now. Identify what is serving you and what is holding you back. Nature abhors a vacuum so if you remove those stinging nettles and bindweed, you will make space for strawberries, aubergines, or whatever brings you joy.If you aspire for personal growth, then you have to focus on yourself. Here are five areas of personal growth and how to improve them.

Personal Growth 

The strategies that you have adopted in the past have become your default settings. Many of these learned behaviors were set in stone during childhood, and you unconsciously trust these strategies because they have worked in the past.Self-awareness will help you recognize these knee-jerk reactions. In some cases, you may perceive them to be perfectly appropriate and benign, while in others, you will realize the opposite.The trick is to simply see them as they are, give thanks for what they’ve achieved in the past, and with the clarity you are now experiencing, choose another way.

Self-Awareness

One thing we humans love is control—to be in control. Or, at least, we love the idea of being in control. We tend to link control with safety.The important thing is what we focus on. What is it we want to be in control of? What are we in control of?Answer is, ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less. Of course, external factors are important in our lives, but what’s most important is how we respond to them, how we perceive them, and how much of our power we give to them. All this important work is done inside.If you want to be in control, focus on your thoughts, your beliefs, and your values.

Control

When we allow something that “happens” to disturb our peace, we give away our power. If you let it trigger you negatively, your emotions are like a ship at sea with no engine power.Recognize your emotion—frustration, disappointment, blame, self-pity, or whatever—and focus on it for ten seconds. Acknowledge it, respect it, and let it go. Release it into the ether, and keep your emotional channels clean. Acceptance is the friend of peace. So, if you aspire to improve areas of your personal growth, don’t say “no” to things, say “yes,” accept, and get on with your life.

Acceptance

What we resist persists.

How well do you know yourself?The quote “what other people think of me is none of my business” has been attributed to countless famous people. It can be tempting to compromise who we are for the sake of being accepted by others. If you want to know yourself, you need to dig deep and find your authentic self—the real “you.” Listing your core values is a useful way to start. Consciously knowing your values will ground you, empower you, and enhance your self-confidence.By knowing yourself, you can establish where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there.

Knowing Yourself

“Basic self-confidence has less to do with a high estimation of one’s abilities than with the underlying capacity to express needs and desires without fear of being abandoned as a result.”

Part of the personal growth process of acceptance is to accept what you don’t know.Humans tend to seek solace in knowledge. Indeed, a significant amount of “knowledge” and “certainty” is, in reality, just opinions.To be able to accept what we do not know is a significant step; it allows you to let go and trust, which can remove stress and anxiety. Simply surrendering yourself to whatever is happening and may happen in the future is a liberating experience and when you stop investing energy in futile efforts to “control”, you’ll be amazed at how your physical energy levels will increase.

Not Knowing

Awareness, inner control, acceptance, and true knowledge will enhance your journey to improving different areas of your personal growth. Only by knowing yourself can you grow yourself.

Final Thoughts

If you aspire for personal growth, then you have to focus on yourself.

Personal growth isn't like GDP. It's about quality rather than quantity. Here are 5 areas of personal growth and how you can improve them.

The 5 Areas of Personal Growth (And How to Improve Them)

"Always fear the flame, lest you be devoured by it, and lose yourself."Dark souls

Loosing one self

If we are not careful the same flame that drived us can lead us to our downfall.

The DARK SOULS series stands as the action RPG reference. 

Immerse yourself in a dark fantasy world filled with colossal enemies, deeply rooted lore and engaging online multiplayer.

DARK SOULS

Find  Self Improvement Tips - Curated from popular Books like Atomic Habits, 48 Rules of Power, Deep Work, Rich Dad Poor Dad and way more!