Mental Model
Institutional Sclerosis (Olson)
Organizations accumulate interest groups, rules, and legacy processes over time that progressively choke adaptability
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Mental Model
Institutional Trust Erosion Model
Trust in institutions follows an asymmetric pattern: builds slowly through consistent performance but collapses rapidly through scandal or perceived betrayal
Mental Model
Insurance
A mechanism for transferring risk from an individual to a pool in exchange for a premium
Mental Model
Insurance as Financial Architecture
Insurance is asymmetric risk transfer: financially rational when potential loss is large and irrecoverable but probability is low enough for affordable premiums
Mental Model
Integral Spirituality (Wilber)
Ken Wilber's integral spirituality attempts to map the relationships between developmental stages, states of consciousness, cultural contexts, and spiritual traditions into a comprehensive framework
Mental Model
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Integrated Pest Management is a decision framework combining biological, cultural, mechanical, and chemical pest control in a hierarchy minimizing economic, health, and environmental risks
Mental Model
Integration Depth Spectrum (Shallow Use → Deep Mastery)
The framework for understanding that tool adoption exists on a spectrum from shallow use (surface-level features, default settings, basic functions) to deep mastery (advanced features, workflow integration, customization…
Mental Model
Integration Failure Pattern (System of Systems Breakdown)
The pattern where individually functional components fail when combined, because the interfaces between components introduce failure modes that don't exist in any individual component
Mental Model
Intellectual Property Strategy
Intellectual property is not one thing but a toolkit of fundamentally different protections: patents protect inventions (20 years, requires disclosure), copyrights protect expression (life+70 years, automatic), trademark…
Mental Model
Intelligence Cycle (Collection-Analysis-Dissemination)
The intelligence cycle is the disciplined process by which raw information becomes actionable intelligence: Planning and Direction (what do we need to know?), Collection (gathering from HUMINT, SIGINT, OSINT, IMINT), Pro…
Mental Model
Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB)
IPB is a four-step analytical methodology: define the area of operations, describe environmental effects (terrain, weather, demographics), evaluate threat capabilities and doctrine, and determine threat courses of action
Mental Model
Intensity Matching
The cognitive process of translating between different scales of intensity—mapping a value from one dimension to an 'equivalent' intensity on another
Mental Model
Intention-to-Treat Error
The statistical error of analyzing only the people who completed a treatment rather than everyone who was assigned to it—creating a biased picture of the treatment's effectiveness
Cognitive Move
Interactive
Hands the reader a control, so the picture changes when they move it and they see what the change costs.
Cognitive Move
Interactive tool
Build something a person plays with repeatedly, not just runs once. Sliders, rounds, and instant feedback let someone try 20 combinations in five minutes and build gut feel for how the system responds, instead of getting one answer back.
Mental Model
Interdependence
The condition where elements of a system mutually depend on each other—changes in one produce changes in others
Mental Model
Interest-Based Relational Approach
The Interest-Based Relational (IBR) approach treats relationship quality and substantive outcomes as equally important and mutually reinforcing, rather than trading one for the other
Cognitive Move
Interface / Handoff
At every transfer, make the state, owner, output, acceptance rules, and exceptions explicit.
Cognitive Move
Interface integrity
Checks the seams, not the parts. At every handoff between a person, an app, or a step, ask whether the meaning, the current status, the source of a claim, the named owner, and the odd cases made it across intact, or quietly dropped.
Mental Model
Intergenerational Ethics
Intergenerational ethics addresses our moral obligations to people who don't yet exist—future generations who will inherit the world we leave them
Mental Model
Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer Protocols
Indigenous knowledge systems developed sophisticated transfer protocols beyond simple 'passing down': graduated access (knowledge restricted until readiness is demonstrated through maturity and character); embodied learn…
Mental Model
Interleaving (Mixed Practice)
Mixing related problem types or skills during practice so learners must often select the appropriate approach, with effects that depend on task and schedule.
Cognitive Move
Intermediate
The middle window, after the first effect fades but before the final state settles. You name what the result should look like once novelty, adrenaline, or last-minute effort wears off, and set a success line for that stretch alone.
Mental Model
Intermittent Fasting Protocols
Intermittent fasting (IF) encompasses time-restricted eating patterns: 16:8 (16-hour fast, 8-hour eating window), 5:2 (normal eating 5 days, ~500 calories 2 days), and alternate-day fasting