Mental Model
Just World Hypothesis
The just-world hypothesis concerns motivation to view outcomes as deserved, which can sometimes encourage victim derogation or unsupported merit judgments
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Cognitive Move
K — Kitchen-sink overload
You have so many ungrouped choices that you can't compare them or act on any of them.
Mental Model
Kafka Trap (Denial as Evidence of Guilt)
A Kafka trap is an informal name for an accusation structured so that denying it is treated as further confirmation, leaving no apparent response that could count against it
Mental Model
Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)
Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy that sustained excellence comes not from dramatic breakthroughs but from relentless, incremental improvements made by everyone in an organization, every day
Mental Model
Kantian Fairness Tendency
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
Mental Model
Karma Yoga (The Yoga of Action)
Karma Yoga is the discipline of selfless action — performing duties with full engagement while relinquishing attachment to outcomes
Mental Model
Kata (Practice Forms)
Kata (literally 'form') originated in Japanese martial arts as choreographed sequences of movements practiced until they become automatic, freeing the mind for higher-level strategic thinking
Cognitive Move
Keep
The verdict you deliver when the prosecution lands nothing decision-relevant. The number still tracks the outcome you care about, and the gaming paths you named are ones you would notice. Nothing changes except that you now trust it on purpose.
Cognitive Move
Keep-safe constraints
List the lines the work must not cross: data that stays private, judgments a person must make personally, steps that can never be undone, and skills you still want to build yourself. These are protections, not instructions about what to produce.
Mental Model
Keeping Score Mentality
The failure pattern where relationship contributions are tracked like a ledger, with each partner monitoring who has done more, given more, or sacrificed more, leading to chronic resentment and transactional dynamics tha…
Mental Model
Kegan's Orders of Consciousness
Robert Kegan's developmental framework describing five increasingly complex ways of making meaning, where each order INCLUDES the previous one as its object
Mental Model
Kegan's Subject-Object Theory (Orders of Mind)
Kegan's theory describes developmental changes in the relation between what a person is embedded in, or subject to, and what they can examine as object
Mental Model
Kelly Criterion
The Kelly criterion chooses exposure to maximize expected logarithmic wealth under a specified probability and payoff model
Mental Model
Key Failure Indicator (KFI)
A key failure indicator is a chosen measure intended to warn of a specific undesirable outcome or emerging process problem
Mental Model
Key Performance Indicator
A key performance indicator is a measure selected to help assess an important objective
Mental Model
Keynesian Beauty Contest
Keynes used a newspaper guessing contest to illustrate decisions rewarded for anticipating average opinion
Mental Model
Keystone Habits
Keystone habits are behaviors that, once established, trigger cascading positive changes across multiple life domains without deliberate effort
Mental Model
Keystone Species Effect
A keystone species has ecological effects disproportionate to its abundance in a specified community
Mental Model
Kill Criteria Protocol (Pre-Set Exit Points)
A protocol for defining in advance the specific conditions under which you will abandon a project, investment, or commitment — before sunk cost bias makes that decision impossible
Mental Model
Kinship as Organizing Principle
In many Indigenous societies, kinship is the fundamental organizing principle for all social, economic, political, and ecological relations
Mental Model
Kintsugi (Golden Repair)
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum, making the cracks visible and beautiful rather than disguising them
Mental Model
KISS Principle
A heuristic to use the simplest solution that meets the actual requirements, considering complexity transferred to other people or systems.
Mental Model
Knowing Your Weaknesses
The strategic discipline of honestly identifying and managing your vulnerabilities rather than pretending they don't exist