Articles & explorations
The ideas behind MODELS: how representations shape what we can understand, what AI might help us discover, and how to bring those possibilities into everyday life.
You can understand a powerful idea, remember its name, and still miss the moment when it would change your life. There is a way to practice that missing step.
By Michael Simmons · 14 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreA better answer, a better thinking partner, and a better mind are different achievements. You can design your AI use to get more of what you actually want.
By Michael Simmons · 13 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreThe methods we inherit are the ones people managed to discover, teach, and preserve. That leaves a surprisingly practical frontier.
By Michael Simmons · 14 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreA pile of research can keep growing while an original argument never arrives. Here is how to move from collecting information to making a contribution.
By Michael Simmons · 13 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreHow to borrow a mechanism, discover where the resemblance breaks, and turn another field’s knowledge into an idea your own field can use.
By Michael Simmons · 13 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreA finished explanation shows you why an answer works. To learn how someone found it, you need to look at a different kind of evidence.
By Michael Simmons · 14 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreThe breakthrough may come from changing the choices available to you—and the order in which you make them.
By Michael Simmons · 13 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreWhat created the result so far can be different from what would improve it now.
By Michael Simmons · 14 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreHow to recognize the kind of work your problem is missing.
By Michael Simmons · 14 min read · Something to try
Read & exploreCase study · Building with AI
The milestones, the human corrections, and the work behind a thinking system you can actually use.
By Michael Simmons · Timeline, verified stats, and an exercise to try
Read the case studyInteractive essay · Cognitive moves
A mental model gives you a way to see. Learning the moves inside it lets you construct ways of seeing of your own.
By Michael Simmons · Four things to try
Read & exploreEssay · The Notation Effect
Reading and algebra changed what people could do. Could AI help us discover the next great mental skill?
By Michael Simmons
Read the articleInteractive lab · Opens a separate website
Explore how representations work, the MODELS field guide, and a speculative question: could better representations help us discover the next ones?
Explore the lab