Cognitive Move
Causal effect
Find out whether changing this factor actually changes the outcome, not just whether they appear together.
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Cognitive Move
causal loop
Named factors joined by signed arrows into a closed circuit. An arrow carries a plus when more of one means more of the other, and a minus when more means less. Count the minus signs: an even number makes the circuit reinforcing, marked R, and it amplifies whatever it starts with. An odd number makes it balancing, marked B, and it pulls back toward a target. Hash marks across an arrow say the effect lands later.
Mental Model
Causal Loop Diagram
A visual mapping tool from systems dynamics that traces how variables influence each other in feedback loops
Mental Model
Causation vs. Correlation
The fundamental distinction between two variables that MOVE TOGETHER (correlation) and one variable actually PRODUCING change in another (causation)
Mental Model
Causes (Multiple and System)
Most significant outcomes result from multiple interacting causes rather than a single root cause
Cognitive Move
Ceiling
Name the point where more stops helping and starts hurting, then forbid crossing it. Unlike a floor (a minimum you protect) or a budget (a total you spend down), this caps intensity, dose, risk, or exposure. Watch that the cap does not become a target people drive up to.
Cognitive Move
Ceiling
A maximum you should not exceed because more becomes toxic, fragile, or not worth its cost.
Cognitive Move
Ceiling Ahead
A hypothesis that growth is activating a limiting constraint that will plateau or reverse it.
Cognitive Move
Ceiling Hunt
Ask which resource, capacity, trust, or permission will cap the next gain before you chase it.
Mental Model
Cellular Automata
Cellular automata are discrete models in which local rules update cell states repeatedly, sometimes generating complex global patterns.
Mental Model
Centenarian Decathlon (Attia): Training Backward from Age 100
Attia's framework works backward from personally meaningful physical activities in the final decade of life to present preparation
Mental Model
Centenarian Studies and Blue Zones Principles
Dan Buettner's Blue Zones research identified five regions where people live measurably longer, healthier lives: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece), and Loma Linda (California, Sevent…
Mental Model
Center of Gravity (Where the Weight Concentrates)
A physical center of gravity is an effective point for the action of weight
Mental Model
Center of Gravity Analysis (Clausewitz's Schwerpunkt)
Clausewitz identified the 'center of gravity' as the source of power providing moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act—the hub on which everything depends
Mental Model
Centering Prayer Framework
Centering Prayer, developed by Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington in the 1970s, is a Christian contemplative practice that closely parallels Eastern meditation but is rooted in the Christian apophatic…
Mental Model
Central Limit Theorem
The central limit theorem gives conditions under which centered and scaled sums or means approach a normal distribution as sample size grows.
Mental Model
Ceremony as Knowledge Practice
In many Indigenous epistemologies, ceremony is not ritual or performance but a rigorous knowledge practice -- a structured methodology for accessing, validating, transmitting, and renewing knowledge
Mental Model
Cessation (Knowing When to Stop)
The underappreciated skill of knowing when to stop pursuing a goal, project, or strategy
Mental Model
Chain of Custody Logic
Chain of custody is the documented trail showing who possessed a piece of evidence, when, and what they did with it — from collection to courtroom presentation
Mental Model
Chain Reaction
A chain reaction propagates when one event produces agents or conditions that generate further events
Mental Model
Chakra Energy Centers Model
The chakra system maps seven centers: Muladhara (root — survival, security), Svadhisthana (sacral — creativity, desire), Manipura (solar plexus — power, will), Anahata (heart — love, connection), Vishuddha (throat — expr…
Cognitive Move
Change authority and escalation
Put bounded decision rights close to the people who have the information and feel the consequences.
Cognitive Move
Change the allocation rule
Change how scarce resources get redistributed as conditions change.
Cognitive Move
Change the Field
If your thinking tracks the noise, light, interruptions, or pressure around you, change the environment once instead of demanding more self-control.