Cognitive Move
Cut the return path
Remove the smallest safe link that lets the unwanted pattern regenerate itself.
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Cognitive Move
Cycle
Re-cut the thing as something that repeats on a clock instead of a fixed object. Ask what its period is, which phase of the loop you are in, and whether the pattern is daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonal.
Mental Model
Cycles
The recognition that many phenomena are cyclical rather than linear—economic booms and busts, market sentiment, innovation waves, political pendulums, biological rhythms
Mental Model
Cyclical Rise and Fall of Civilizations (Ibn Khaldun)
Ibn Khaldun's theory from the Muqaddimah posits that civilizations follow a predictable generational cycle of approximately 120 years (three to four generations)
Cognitive Move
D - Direction missing or borrowed
You are chasing a goal you never actually chose; it was inherited from status, convention, or a past version of you.
Cognitive Move
Danger
The route for when the threat sits outside you: violence, coercion, an unsafe vehicle, live equipment. The right move changes your physical situation, so you leave, lock up, or get help, instead of steadying yourself and pressing on.
Mental Model
Daoist Reversal Principle (Fan)
The Daodejing's counterintuitive teaching: 'Reversal is the movement of the Dao' (Ch
Mental Model
Dark Night of the Soul (Contemplative Crisis as Growth)
A concept from Christian mysticism (St
Mental Model
Dark Night of the Soul (Extended Framework)
The 'Dark Night of the Soul,' originating from 16th-century mystic St
Mental Model
Dark Patterns
Dark patterns, also called deceptive patterns, are interface techniques that manipulate, deceive, or obstruct people into choices contrary to their informed intentions
Mental Model
DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender)
Jennifer Freyd's framework for a specific manipulation pattern used when someone is confronted with their harmful behavior: (1) Deny—'That didn't happen' or 'That's not what I did,' (2) Attack—the person who raised the c…
Cognitive Move
Data
The values as they actually sit in the file, table, or dashboard after measuring. You ask whether what got recorded matches what got measured: rows dropped, dates mislabeled, duplicates counted twice, a filter or join quietly reshaping the set you see.
Mental Model
Data Dredging
Searching through large datasets for statistically significant patterns without pre-specified hypotheses, then presenting the 'discoveries' as if they were predicted in advance
Mental Model
Data Minimization Principle
Data minimization holds that you should collect, share, and retain only minimum data necessary for a specific purpose—deleting when fulfilled
Mental Model
De-escalation Protocols
De-escalation is a set of evidence-based techniques for reducing emotional intensity in conflict situations before they reach the point of no return
Mental Model
De-Risking
The strategic practice of systematically reducing risk exposure through specific interventions BEFORE committing significant resources—converting uncertainty into manageable risk through information gathering, staged inv…
Cognitive Move
Deadline
Put a calendar date on the waiting itself. If the signal you named never shows up by that date, you decide anyway with what you have. Without this cap, "waiting for clarity" quietly becomes permanent avoidance dressed as patience.
Mental Model
Deadline Pressure Management Protocol
A protocol for handling deadline pressure in negotiations — both when you face a deadline and when the other party imposes one
Mental Model
Deadweight Loss
Deadweight loss is the reduction in total surplus relative to an efficient allocation under stated assumptions
Mental Model
Dealbreaker vs. Tradeoff Distinction
In every negotiation, there are dealbreakers (non-negotiable requirements that must be met for any deal to be possible) and tradeoffs (issues where you have flexibility and can exchange concessions)
Mental Model
Death Awareness as Meaning Catalyst
Terror Management Theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon), drawing on Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death, demonstrates that awareness of mortality is a primary driver of human meaning-making, culture creation, and se…
Mental Model
Debt
Debt is an obligation to repay money or another agreed resource under specified terms
Mental Model
Debt Hierarchy Management
Debt hierarchy ranks debts by cost and strategic value for clear payoff priority: (1) Payday/predatory loans (300%+ APR)—eliminate immediately; (2) Credit cards (15-25%)—guaranteed high return from payoff; (3) Personal l…
Cognitive Move
Decision
Where a belief turns into a chosen course among options. Ask which alternatives were actually on the table, what threshold made this one win, and whether a different belief would have produced a different choice.