Mental Model
Black box
A system or component whose internal workings are unknown or irrelevant—defined entirely by its inputs and outputs
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Mental Model
Black Box Model of Decision-Making
The approach of evaluating a decision system by its inputs and outputs without understanding its internal mechanisms
Mental Model
Black Box Warning
The FDA's strongest safety warning on a drug label—a literal black-bordered box indicating serious or life-threatening risks
Mental Model
Black or White
The logical fallacy of presenting only two options when more exist—forcing a binary choice on a multi-option reality
Mental Model
Black Swan
Nassim Taleb's term for rare, unpredictable events with massive impact that are rationalized in hindsight as if they were predictable
Mental Model
Black Swan Discovery Process
A protocol for uncovering the hidden information — 'Black Swans' — that fundamentally change the negotiation landscape
Mental Model
Blame-Shifting Cycle
The self-reinforcing communication pattern where responsibility for problems is continuously transferred from the actual source to increasingly removed parties, preventing root cause resolution and creating a culture of…
Cognitive Move
Blind pairwise or independent review
Hide the labels, order, and prestige before comparing, so the judgment lands on the work and not the name.
Cognitive Move
block diagram
Boxes for components, labeled lines for what passes between them, and a small square where each line meets a box. Draw a dashed edge around the boxes you are treating as inside, and every crossing becomes an interface you can name. This is the plain version and the one to start with. Its whole value is that it makes you write a noun on every line, and a line you cannot label is a connection you have not thought about yet.
Cognitive Move
Blocking
Flag the items that stop other work cold until they clear. A must-precede link only sets order; this one freezes everything behind it. For each candidate, count how many downstream tasks sit idle and how long they wait.
Cognitive Move
blocks and a built model
Pieces that stack or connect, assembled into something that stands up. Structure is carried by physics: a block holding two others up cannot pretend it is not, and pulling it out is a test you can run in a second. What the pieces are made of matters less than the fact that every part now has a size, a place, and something resting on it.
Mental Model
Bloom's Taxonomy (Revised)
The revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) organizes cognitive processes into six levels: (1) Remember—retrieving knowledge; (2) Understand—constructing meaning; (3) Apply—carrying out procedures; (4) Analyze—dete…
Mental Model
Blotto and Competition
Blotto extensions examine how resource-allocation incentives change with unequal budgets, different contest values, timing, or information.
Mental Model
Blotto_ No Best Strategy
Many Blotto settings require comparing allocations strategically rather than selecting one universally best pure allocation
Mental Model
Blotto_ Troop Advantages
Blotto resource comparisons examine how unequal budgets change feasible allocations and resulting payoffs under specified contest rules.
Mental Model
Blue Zones Longevity Principles
Dan Buettner's Blue Zones research identified five regions worldwide where people live measurably longer, healthier lives: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece), and Loma Linda, Californ…
Mental Model
Bob Rubin Trade (Hidden Risk)
Taleb's label for arrangements in which an actor captures gains while substantial downside is borne by others, sometimes after rewards have already been paid
Mental Model
Body Scan Progressive Attention
The body scan is a meditation practice where attention moves systematically through different regions of the body — typically from feet to head or vice versa — noticing sensations (warmth, tension, tingling, numbness, pa…
Mental Model
Boiling Frog
An explicitly nonliteral warning about overlooking cumulative deterioration when small changes are compared only with the recent past.
Cognitive Move
Bonus
The lowest tier: things you would enjoy having but will trade away without argument the moment they compete with anything above them. Naming them here keeps them in view while stripping them of veto power, so they never quietly hijack a decision.
Cognitive Move
BOOST
Pick this when a loop you want already runs on its own but turns too weakly or too slowly. Before acting, name which of four things limits it: the cycle time, the throughput, the gain per turn, or the starting stock feeding it.
Mental Model
Boots on the Ground
The military principle that strategic objectives ultimately require physical presence and sustained commitment—air power, technology, and remote influence can support but not replace direct engagement
Mental Model
Boredom as Creative Catalyst
Boredom is not a failure state but a signal that the default mode network is activating—the same network responsible for creative insight, future planning, and autobiographical reflection
Mental Model
Both-And Options
The strategic practice of rejecting false dichotomies and seeking solutions that achieve MULTIPLE apparently competing objectives simultaneously—integrating rather than choosing between competing goods