Find a thinking move to make, or a mental model to understand a situation.
Psychology & Cognitive Science
The persistent cognitive error of drawing broad conclusions from insufficient data—treating a few observations as representative of the whole population
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The cognitive process of categorizing individuals based on group membership—attributing group characteristics to individual members without evaluating them individually
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The deep human drive to demonstrate agency through action—encompassing action bias, fight/flight response, and the organizational need to demonstrate value through visible activity
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Drawing a target around bullet holes after shooting and claiming you hit the bullseye—finding a pattern in random data and then constructing a hypothesis to explain it as if you'd predicted it
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The error of assuming causation between two correlated variables when both are actually caused by a hidden third variable
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The deep human tendency to divide the world into in-groups and out-groups, then favor the in-group and demonize the out-group—often based on minimal or arbitrary distinctions
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The tendency to consume or complete one 'unit' of something regardless of how the unit is defined—eating a full plate regardless of plate size, completing a full project regardless of project scope, watching a full episo…
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Kahneman's finding from 'Noise' that professionals making the same judgment about the same case produce alarmingly different conclusions—and the variability is far greater than anyone expects
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Kahneman's acronym for the mind's tendency to construct the best possible story from available information—without considering what information is MISSING
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The psychological finding that incomplete tasks occupy more mental space than completed ones—unfinished business creates a persistent cognitive tension that demands resolution
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The preference for completely eliminating a risk over a larger reduction in overall risk—choosing certainty of zero risk in one area over greater total risk reduction across all areas
Cognitive Biases & HeuristicsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The developmental psychology framework showing that early relationships with caregivers create internal 'working models' of relationships that persist into adulthood—shaping how people approach intimacy, trust, conflict,…
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Erik Erikson's eight-stage model of lifelong psychological development, each defined by a central crisis: Trust vs
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Robert Kegan's developmental framework describing five increasingly complex ways of making meaning, where each order INCLUDES the previous one as its object
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Abraham Maslow's motivational theory that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy: physiological needs (food, water, shelter) → safety needs (security, stability) → belonging needs (love, community) → esteem needs (respe…
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Jean Piaget's foundational framework showing that children's thinking develops through qualitatively different stages—not just 'more knowledge' but fundamentally different cognitive STRUCTURES: Sensorimotor (0-2: learnin…
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Kohlberg's highest stage of moral development where ethical reasoning transcends social convention and even law—operating from self-chosen universal principles
Developmental PsychologyPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the tendency to be excessively influenced by authority figures—following their direction or adopting their views without independent evaluation
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the systematic overweighting of information that is easily available to the mind—vivid, recent, emotionally charged, or frequently encountered—while underweighting information that is harder to recall b…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
The cognitive bias where evaluation of an item is distorted by what it's COMPARED to rather than assessed on its own merits
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Charlie Munger's recognition of curiosity as a fundamental psychological drive that produces disproportionate learning and advantage when cultivated—and disproportionate ignorance when absent
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the disproportionately intense reaction people have to LOSING something they already possess—a reaction that exceeds the pleasure of acquiring the same thing
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's mirror of liking/loving tendency: the tendency to distort reality in negative directions when you dislike someone
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's observation that the brain reflexively resolves doubt by reaching quick conclusions rather than tolerating uncertainty—because uncertainty is psychologically costly (it consumes cognitive resources and produces…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's inclusion of envy and jealousy as among the most powerful and destructive psychological forces—powerful because they motivate enormous amounts of behavior, and destructive because they're corrosive to the person…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the universal tendency to overestimate one's own abilities, contributions, and possessions—the Lake Wobegon effect where everyone is above average
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the brain's powerful drive to maintain consistency between beliefs, actions, and identity—resisting any change that would create internal contradiction
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
The metacognitive practice of deliberately applying persuasion and influence techniques TO YOURSELF—using the same psychological principles that influence others to change your own behavior, beliefs, and emotional states
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the unconscious influence of associations on judgment—liking or disliking something based on what it's ASSOCIATED WITH rather than its intrinsic qualities
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's reference to the deeply ingrained human expectation of reciprocal fairness—the instinct that others should play by the same rules you do, and the intense emotional reaction when they don't
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's observation that the tendency to like or love someone produces systematic cognitive distortions: we ignore faults of those we like, distort facts to favor them, accept their claims without scrutiny, and adopt th…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Charlie Munger's term for the extreme outcome that occurs when multiple psychological tendencies or mental models operate in the same direction simultaneously
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's emphasis on systematic over-optimism as one of the most costly psychological tendencies: people consistently overestimate the probability of positive outcomes, the speed of success, and their own capabilities wh…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's term for the tendency to deny or distort reality when the truth is too painful to accept—the psychological immune system that protects against unbearable truths by simply rejecting them
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's meta-principle about filtering the influence of others' advice: most advice is self-interested, uninformed, or both—and accepting bad advice can be more costly than making your own mistakes
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
People are much more likely to comply with requests when given a reason, even if the reason is trivial or circular
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
The deep human drive to repay in kind what another has provided—gifts, favors, concessions, and even harm
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's emphasis on the overwhelming power of social proof in shaping human behavior: people determine what is correct by observing what others do, especially in conditions of uncertainty
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Munger's observation that stress dramatically alters cognitive function—producing both degraded performance (decision quality drops, cognitive flexibility decreases, tunnel vision increases) AND heightened susceptibility…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Charlie Munger's term for the human tendency to spend time on trivial, unimportant matters while avoiding difficult, important ones—gravitating toward easy conversation, easy problems, and easy decisions while the hard o…
Munger's Psychology of MisjudgmentPsychology & Cognitive Science
Wilson and Kelling's theory that visible signs of disorder (broken windows, graffiti, litter) signal that an environment is unmonitored and norms are unenforced, which invites further disorder and escalation
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Donald Campbell's principle that 'the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the…
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The historical example from British colonial India where the government offered bounties for dead cobras to reduce the cobra population—which led people to breed cobras for the bounty income
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Ward Cunningham's observation that 'the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer.' People are more motivated to correct errors than to answer questions—the…
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The bias toward action over inaction, especially in ambiguous situations where the best course is actually to wait, observe, or do nothing
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The pattern where a founder's strengths that built the company become liabilities as the company scales—and the founder's identity is too intertwined with the company to recognize or accept this transition
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
Michael Crichton's observation (named after physicist Murray Gell-Mann): you read a newspaper article about a topic you know well and notice it's full of errors, oversimplifications, and misunderstandings
Named Laws & EffectsPsychology & Cognitive Science
The phenomenon where compensation, benefits, or accumulated advantages become so valuable that they prevent the recipient from leaving even when they want to—the 'handcuffs' are made of gold but they're still handcuffs
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