Cognitive Move
Loop in Three
Draw 3 changing variables and see if the third genuinely feeds back to the first; if not, it's just a chain.
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Mental Model
Lose-Lose
An outcome where all parties end up worse off than they started—the worst possible result of any interaction
Mental Model
Loss Aversion
People feel the pain of losing something roughly twice as intensely as they feel the pleasure of gaining the equivalent
Mental Model
Loss Leader
A loss leader is an offer sold below a specified cost measure to attract purchases that may offset the initial loss
Mental Model
Loss of Possibility Grief
Loss of possibility grief describes mourning not what was but what will never be—the unlived life, the unchosen path, the future that a loss renders impossible
Cognitive Move
Loss of separation
When the same person or tool does the work, checks the work, and decides whether to go ahead, one mistake sails through every stage because nobody uncoupled from it is left to object.
Cognitive Move
Losses
Count what vanishes from the flow without ever reaching a destination you meant it to reach. Unlike a normal outflow, nothing on the other end received value. Unlike a queue, it never comes back. Ask: where does this quantity evaporate, and how much?
Mental Model
Lossy vs Lossless Compression
Lossless compression preserves exact recoverability of its input
Mental Model
Love Languages in Intimacy
Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages framework—words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch—applied specifically to sexual and intimate contexts, reveals that partners often expr…
Mental Model
Love Map Update Protocol (Gottman)
A protocol for maintaining deep knowledge of your partner's inner world — their fears, dreams, preferences, stressors, and aspirations — which Gottman calls a 'Love Map.' The protocol: (1) Weekly curiosity practice: Ask…
Mental Model
Love Maps (Deep Knowledge of Partner's Inner World)
Love maps are a metaphor for a current, revisable understanding of a partner’s life, concerns, and preferences, developed through attention and conversation.
Cognitive Move
Low-power parties
Some people on your list can simply be overruled. Ask who absorbs cost or risk while lacking any real ability to object, delay, or change the plan. Being present or named is not the same as having a vote.
Cognitive Move
Lower and upper bounds where relevant
Put a number on the dimensions that have one: a floor below which the outcome fails, a ceiling above which it fails, or both. Not every dimension needs a limit, so only set one where a real threshold exists.
Cognitive Move
Lower the Compute
When you can't hold the goal, safeguards, and steps in your head at once, write down one goal and one safeguard and take one reversible step.
Cognitive Move
Lower uncertainty × Irreversible
You know what you want, but the choice cannot be undone, so speed is not the reward here. Confirm the few facts a mistake would hinge on, split the commitment into stages if you can, then commit deliberately rather than casually.
Cognitive Move
Lower uncertainty × Reversible
You already know enough to choose, and a wrong choice costs little to undo. More analysis buys nothing, so decide now and move your deliberation time to the choices that actually deserve it.
Mental Model
Loyalist vs Mercenary (Hiring)
A practitioner hiring metaphor contrasting attachment to a mission or group with an emphasis on compensation or career opportunity
Mental Model
Loyalists vs Mercenaries
A practitioner contrast between attachment to a mission or group and emphasis on compensation or opportunity
Mental Model
Luck Surface Area
Jason Roberts's Luck Surface Area is a heuristic linking doing useful or interesting work with telling relevant people about it
Mental Model
Ludic Fallacy (Confusing Map for Territory in Probability)
Nassim Taleb's term for the error of applying neat, game-like probability models to the messy, fat-tailed real world
Mental Model
Lyapunov Functions
Lyapunov analysis proves specified stability properties of a mathematical dynamical system by constructing a scalar function with suitable positivity and trajectory-change conditions
Mental Model
Lyapunov or Markov
Lyapunov analysis studies stability through suitable scalar functions; Markov modeling represents next-state probabilities using a sufficient current state
Mental Model
Lyapunov_ Fun and Deep
Beyond establishing convergence, analyze its rate, region of attraction, finite-time behavior, and response to specified disturbances
Cognitive Move
M.SHIFT evaluator
The AI-executable five-check expansion of Effective?: S and F answer Same facts, H and I answer Better move, and T answers Worth it.