Cognitive Move
Reversible First Step
Find the smallest action you can fully undo that would still change your beliefs or direction.
The encyclopedia
People, books, and breakthrough ideas—connected to the mental models and moves you can use.
Explore the encyclopedia
3,456 entries
Cognitive Move
Reversible probe
Take a small action designed so you can fully undo it after learning from it.
Mental Model
Reversible vs. Irreversible Decisions
A decision heuristic distinguishing choices that can be changed at acceptable cost from those with consequences that are difficult to undo
Mental Model
Reversion to the Mean (Business Performance)
Extreme business results may become less extreme when temporary conditions or noise fade, and profitability may also change through competition and adjustment
Cognitive Move
Review
Put a date on the calendar when the goal gets reopened and judged on evidence, whether or not anything looks broken. Unlike revising or quitting, this part changes nothing by itself. It just guarantees the question gets asked out loud.
Cognitive Move
Review and simplification schedule
Set a date in advance to reread the rule itself and cut it back. You ask which branches actually fired, which signals proved noisy, and what can be deleted, so the rule stays small enough to follow without a chart.
Cognitive Move
Review cadence
Set in advance how often you will sit down and look at the trend, so the check is a scheduled event rather than something you do when you happen to feel guilty or curious. Pick an interval short enough to correct course, long enough for a signal.
Cognitive Move
Revision
Keep pursuing the goal but change what it says. You alter the target number, horizon, or definition of success when evidence shows the old version was wrong, while leaving the effort alive. Difficulty alone never justifies it; only disconfirming evidence does.
Cognitive Move
Revision authority
Names who can change, pause, or kill the plan after it is already running, and on what trigger. The other five roles govern getting a decision made. This one governs undoing it, so a rollout is not permanent by default.
Mental Model
Revolving Door
The movement of personnel between regulatory bodies and the industries they regulate, creating conflicts of interest that compromise regulatory independence
Cognitive Move
reward
Check what actually gets praised, paid, and promoted, then compare it to the stated goal. People steer toward consequences, not announcements. If the incentive pays a different behavior than the target needs, effort flows there regardless of what the plan says.
Mental Model
Reward and Punishment
The most fundamental behavioral mechanism: organisms repeat behaviors that are rewarded and cease behaviors that are punished
Mental Model
Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency
Charlie Munger's term for the outsized influence of incentives on behavior—far exceeding what most people expect
Cognitive Move
Rewire
Keep the same people, tools, and tasks, and change only the connections around them: what starts the work, what form it arrives in, who owns it, who checks it, and where the exceptions go.
Mental Model
Rhetorical Questions
Rhetorical questions can invite an answer or imply a claim without arguing for it
Mental Model
Rhythm
In music, communication, and life design, rhythm is the pattern of emphasis, timing, and repetition that creates structure, predictability, and momentum
Mental Model
Right Tool for the Right Job
Every experienced tradesperson knows that using the wrong tool produces poor results, damages tool and workpiece, and increases injury risk
Cognitive Move
Rights
Asks which claims are entitlements rather than preferences, so they cannot be traded, outvoted, or priced into the same tally as benefits. Rights shrink the option set before you weigh anything, and holding few votes never shrinks a right.
Mental Model
Rights-Based Thinking
Rights-based thinking starts from the premise that individuals possess inherent entitlements—to speech, property, privacy, due process—that cannot be overridden merely because doing so would produce better aggregate outc…
Mental Model
Ringi System (Formal Consensus)
The ringi system is the formal Japanese organizational decision-making process where proposals (ringisho) circulate from bottom to top, collecting seals of approval (hanko) from each level of management
Mental Model
Risk Assessment
Systematic evaluation of downside scenarios through four questions: (1) What's the worst case? (2) How likely is it? (3) Can I survive it? (4) Is the upside worth the risk? The critical insight from Munger and Bevelin is…
Mental Model
Risk Capacity vs. Risk Tolerance
Risk capacity is the objective ability to absorb losses without material life impact—determined by time horizon, income stability, wealth, and obligations
Mental Model
Risk Layering (Multiple Defenses)
The defense-in-depth principle that no single risk mitigation is reliable enough on its own—effective risk management uses multiple independent layers, each catching what the others miss
Mental Model
Risk Priority Number (RPN)
The Risk Priority Number is a quantitative scoring system used in FMEA that multiplies three independently assessed factors — Severity (S), Occurrence (O), and Detection (D) — each rated 1-10, to produce a composite risk…