Mental Model
Savior Complex (Compulsive Rescuing)
The pattern of deriving identity and worth from rescuing others, which creates dependency rather than empowerment and ultimately serves the rescuer's needs more than the rescued
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Mental Model
Say-Something Syndrome
The cognitive bias where people feel compelled to CONTRIBUTE to discussions, offer opinions, or provide input even when they have nothing meaningful to add—driven by social pressure to demonstrate engagement, intelligenc…
Mental Model
Saying No Framework (Positive No - Ury)
A three-step protocol for declining requests while preserving relationships, developed by William Ury of the Harvard Negotiation Project
Mental Model
Sayre's Law (Academic Politics)
The observation that 'in any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake'—people fight hardest about things that matter least
Mental Model
SBI Feedback Model (Situation-Behavior-Impact)
A three-step feedback delivery protocol developed by the Center for Creative Leadership
Cognitive Move
Scaffold, Then Fade
Move from demonstration to guided work to unaided work, reducing support as real mastery appears.
Mental Model
Scaffolding (Structured Support That's Gradually Removed)
Responsive support that enables participation beyond current independent performance and transfers responsibility as capability develops.
Mental Model
Scaffolding (Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development in Parenting)
Scaffolding provides responsive support for aspects of a task a learner cannot yet manage alone, with adjustment as capability develops
Mental Model
Scaffolding and Fading
Scaffolding provides structured support enabling learners to accomplish tasks beyond their current ability, then systematically removes (fades) that support as competence develops
Mental Model
Scaffolding Progression Design (Calibrating Support to Mastery)
Scaffolding progression design structures learning so support is calibrated to learner capability—maximum initially, systematically withdrawn as competence grows
Cognitive Move
Scale
How big is the version you commit to overall: the total time, money, and ambition riding on it. Ask what a quarter-sized version and a triple-sized version of the same action would look like, then treat each size as its own option.
Mental Model
Scale and Limits
Every system and strategy has a natural scale at which it works and limits beyond which it breaks
Mental Model
Scale-Free Networks (Power Law Degree Distribution)
Networks where a few nodes have enormously more connections than the average, following a power law distribution rather than a bell curve
Mental Model
Scaling Laws (3/4 Power Law)
Biological scaling laws relate traits such as metabolic rate to body mass through power relationships
Mental Model
SCAMPER Method
SCAMPER is a checklist of transformation prompts associated with Bob Eberle: substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other uses, eliminate, and reverse or rearrange.
Mental Model
Scarcity
Scarcity means that available resources do not satisfy all desired uses within relevant constraints
Mental Model
Scarcity Mindset vs Abundance Mindset
Stephen Covey's distinction between two fundamental orientations: scarcity mindset (the belief that resources, opportunities, and success are fixed in quantity—your gain is my loss) and abundance mindset (the belief that…
Mental Model
Scarcity Principle
The scarcity principle describes how limited availability can influence perceived value and urgency
Cognitive Move
scatter
Two measurements from the same case become one dot on two axes. Nothing is aggregated, so every case stays visible and the pattern is whatever the cloud does: a slope, a curve, a clump, a few dots far from the rest. It is the only renderer here that shows a relationship between two quantities, and it still shows association rather than direction.
Mental Model
Scenario Analysis
Systematically imagining and planning for multiple possible futures rather than assuming a single expected outcome
Mental Model
Scenario Planning
A strategic method of creating multiple plausible narratives about how the future might unfold, then stress-testing strategies against each scenario
Cognitive Move
scenario set
Axes removed, futures named. One present point, three or four lines out, each ending in a full sentence about the world rather than a number. Good sets are driven by different things, so the preparation differs. A set where the futures are the same story at three volumes has told you nothing.
Cognitive Move
scenario set
Three or four named parameter settings from the same model, run and shown together. The names carry the argument: light, current, stretch. Because every scenario comes out of one set of rules, the differences between the lines belong to the inputs rather than to three separate guesses. The risk is that naming a scenario makes it feel likely, so put the inputs beside each name where they cannot be skipped.