Mental Model
Moksha (Liberation as Ultimate Goal)
Moksha is the ultimate aim across Indian traditions — the recognition that worldly achievements (wealth, pleasure, even duty) are necessary but not sufficient for fulfillment
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Mental Model
Momentum
Newtonian linear momentum is mass times velocity, a vector quantity changed by net external impulse
Mental Model
Money Scripts (Klontz): Unconscious Beliefs Driving Financial Behavior
The Klontz Money Script Inventory measures reported beliefs organized into money avoidance, worship, status, and vigilance dimensions
Mental Model
Monkey Mind Model
The 'monkey mind' (kapicitta in Buddhist Pali texts) is a metaphor for the untrained mind's tendency to swing ceaselessly from thought to thought — like a monkey swinging from branch to branch — without settling anywhere
Mental Model
Mono no Aware (Pathos of Things)
Mono no aware ('the pathos of things' or 'an empathy toward things') is the Japanese aesthetic sensibility of bittersweet awareness that all things are transient
Mental Model
Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time (Hall)
Edward Hall identified two orientations toward time
Mental Model
Monopoly and Competition
Competition and monopoly describe different degrees of constraint from rival sellers and substitutes
Mental Model
Monopsony
A market with a single buyer (or dominant buyer) who has outsized power to dictate terms to sellers
Cognitive Move
Monte Carlo
The band built from the bottom rather than drawn by hand. Take the variation you actually observed, run the same period many times drawing from it, and plot every run. The spread of the endings is the forecast, and the runs that fail can be inspected to see what they had in common.
Mental Model
Monte Carlo Simulation
A computational technique that uses RANDOM SAMPLING to estimate outcomes of complex systems that resist analytical solution—running thousands or millions of simulations with randomized inputs to produce probability distr…
Mental Model
Moore's Law
Gordon Moore's 1965 observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, producing exponential growth in computing power at declining cost
Mental Model
Moot Court as Stress Testing
Before major appellate arguments or trial presentations, experienced litigators conduct 'moot courts' — full rehearsals where colleagues play the role of hostile judges or opposing counsel, asking the toughest questions…
Mental Model
Moral Courage Framework
Moral courage is the capacity to act on ethical convictions despite personal risk—social disapproval, career damage, financial loss, or physical danger
Mental Model
Moral Distress in Organizations
Moral distress occurs when you know the ethically right course of action but feel constrained from taking it by institutional pressures, hierarchical authority, or practical barriers
Mental Model
Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt)
Jonathan Haidt's research identifies six innate moral foundations that all humans share but weight differently: Care/Harm (sensitivity to suffering), Fairness/Cheating (reciprocity and justice), Loyalty/Betrayal (group c…
Mental Model
Moral Hazard
Moral hazard is an incentive problem in which protection from consequences can change behavior, often when actions are difficult for another party to observe
Mental Model
Moral Hazard Chain
The cascading pattern where insulation from consequences at one level of a financial system enables risk-taking that creates systemic fragility
Mental Model
Moral Injury Concept
Moral injury occurs when someone perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that violate their deeply held moral beliefs
Mental Model
Moral Licensing
The psychological phenomenon where doing something 'good' gives you unconscious permission to do something 'bad'—as if morality works like a bank account where good deeds create credits that can be spent on bad ones
Mental Model
Moral Licensing Effect
After doing something good, people feel psychologically licensed to do something bad—as if moral behavior generates 'credits' that can be spent on subsequent immoral behavior
Mental Model
Morning Routine Design Protocol
A protocol for designing and implementing a morning routine that sets the psychological and physiological tone for your entire day
Mental Model
Morphological Box
Fritz Zwicky's systematic creativity technique: decompose a problem into independent dimensions, list possible values for each dimension, then systematically explore combinations
Mental Model
Most Important Tasks (MITs)
The productivity practice of identifying 1-3 critical tasks each day that would make the day a success regardless of everything else
Mental Model
Most Respectful Interpretation
The communication and relationship discipline of interpreting ambiguous messages, actions, or behaviors through the MOST GENEROUS plausible interpretation rather than the most negative one