Mental Model
Mutual Information (Shared Knowledge Between Variables)
Mutual information measures statistical dependence between variables, including nonlinear dependence
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Mental Model
Mutually Assured Destruction
The Cold War nuclear deterrence doctrine where both sides possess sufficient retaliatory capability to destroy the other even after absorbing a first strike—making first-strike impossible because it guarantees your own d…
Mental Model
Mystical Experience Framework (James)
William James' Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) identified four defining characteristics of mystical experience: ineffability (the experience cannot be adequately conveyed in words), noetic quality (the experienc…
Mental Model
Mythical Man-Month
Fred Brooks's insight that adding people to a late software project makes it later
Cognitive Move
N-of-1, switchback, reversal, or dose-response
Test on yourself or one unit by switching the factor on and off and watching what tracks.
Cognitive Move
Name the target relations first
Before hunting for any analogy, write down the specific relationships in the new material you need explained. Fixing that list first stops you from starting with a source that feels familiar and then bending the new domain to fit it.
Cognitive Move
Named signal
Write down the exact observable event that ends the wait, specific enough that you and a skeptical friend would agree the moment it happened. Not a mood, not "when things get clearer," but a fact you could go check today.
Mental Model
Nap Architecture (Strategic Micro-Sleep)
Not all naps are equal—their cognitive benefits depend precisely on duration and timing
Cognitive Move
Narrative
Carries one case through time in sentences, so the order, the particulars, and why any of it mattered arrive together.
Mental Model
Narrative Fallacy
The human compulsion to create coherent stories from random data—finding causation in correlation, pattern in noise, and meaning in randomness
Mental Model
Narrative Fallacy (Taleb's Version)
Nassim Taleb's extension of the narrative fallacy emphasizing its role in Black Swan blindness: our stories always make the past seem orderly and predictable, which creates the illusion that the future is equally orderly…
Mental Model
Narrative Identity (McAdams): The Story You Tell About Yourself
Narrative identity is an evolving life story that connects reconstructed past, present concerns, and imagined future
Mental Model
Narrative Identity Theory (McAdams) — Deep Framework
Dan McAdams' narrative identity theory proposes that identity is fundamentally a story—an internalized, evolving narrative of the self that integrates reconstructed past, perceived present, and anticipated future into a…
Mental Model
Narrative Instinct
The deep human compulsion to organize experience into stories with characters, causation, and meaning—even when the underlying reality is random, complex, or meaningless
Mental Model
Narrow Framing
The cognitive error of evaluating decisions in isolation rather than as part of a broader portfolio—treating each choice as if it exists independently rather than as one of many decisions you'll make
Mental Model
Narrow Framing (Kahneman & Tversky)
The tendency to make decisions in isolation rather than as part of a broader portfolio, leading to excessive risk aversion for individual decisions that would be perfectly reasonable in aggregate
Mental Model
Natural and Logical Consequences (vs. Punishment)
Natural consequences occur without an adult arranging them; logical consequences are intentionally related to behavior and intended to support learning or repair
Mental Model
Natural Disaster Preparedness Protocol
A protocol for preparing for and responding to natural disasters — earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, severe storms, and power outages
Mental Model
Natural Monopoly
A natural monopoly exists when one provider can supply the relevant market at lower total cost than multiple providers dividing production
Mental Model
Natural Selection and Extinction
Darwin's mechanism of evolutionary change: variation in traits, differential survival and reproduction based on environmental fit, and inheritance of successful traits across generations
Mental Model
Naturalistic Decision Making
Gary Klein's research program studying how experts actually make decisions in real-world conditions—under time pressure, with incomplete information, in dynamic situations
Mental Model
Nature as Stress Buffer
Natural environments serve as a buffer against stress that makes subsequent stressors less damaging
Mental Model
Nature Deficit Disorder (Louv)
Richard Louv's concept describes the cumulative cognitive, emotional, and physical costs of alienation from natural environments