Mental Model
Nature vs. Nurture
Genetic and environmental factors can contribute to complex traits, sometimes through interactions and correlations
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Cognitive Move
Ne Costly
Skip the probe because the answer isn't worth what it costs to get; stop or find a cheaper observation.
Cognitive Move
Ne Insensitive
Skip the probe because the available test cannot detect a difference big enough to matter; redesign or act conservatively.
Cognitive Move
Ne No Decision
Skip the probe because no live action depends on the answer; clarify the decision or exit.
Cognitive Move
Ne No Permission
Skip the probe because you lack the consent, authority, or policy clearance to collect it.
Cognitive Move
Ne No Split
Skip the probe because every plausible answer leads to the same action; act on the robust option and set a monitoring trigger.
Cognitive Move
Ne Unresolvable
Skip the probe because no feasible evidence can separate the rival explanations; decide by values, robustness, or reversibility instead.
Cognitive Move
Ne Unsafe
Skip the probe because testing it creates disproportionate risk; use a safer proxy or protective action instead.
Cognitive Move
Ne Urgent
Skip the probe because waiting would violate an urgent safeguard; act or escalate first, collect only required monitoring.
Mental Model
Necessity and Sufficiency
The foundational logical distinction between conditions that are NECESSARY (must be present for something to occur, but don't guarantee it) and conditions that are SUFFICIENT (guarantee the outcome when present, but aren…
Cognitive Move
Needed output
Spell out what has to come back and in what shape: the format, how detailed, by when, how certain it must be, and the specific test that makes it acceptable rather than merely finished. Not who decides, not what context went in.
Mental Model
Negative Capability (Keats - Comfort with Uncertainty)
Keats's negative capability concerns remaining with uncertainty and mystery without impatiently forcing an explanation, especially in literary imagination
Mental Model
Negative Returns
The point at which additional input not only fails to improve output but actively makes it worse
Cognitive Move
Negative search
Check whether anyone actively looked for counterexamples, nulls, and failures, or only collected the hits.
Mental Model
Negative-Sum Game
An interaction where total value is destroyed—all parties collectively end up with less than they started
Cognitive Move
Negative, extreme, or boundary case
Go inspect the failure, the outlier, the dropout, or the edge condition directly, because that is where the model breaks.
Mental Model
Neglect of Probability
The tendency to respond to the POSSIBILITY of an event without regard to its PROBABILITY—reacting to whether something CAN happen rather than how LIKELY it is to happen
Mental Model
Negotiation Dance: Opening, Concession, and Close
Every negotiation follows a predictable three-phase structure: opening (establishing positions and anchors), concession exchange (systematic movement toward agreement), and closing (final convergence and commitment)
Mental Model
Negotiation Jujitsu
When the other party uses hardball tactics—threats, ultimatums, personal attacks, extreme demands—the instinct is to respond in kind, escalating the conflict
Mental Model
Negotiation Preparation Checklist
Elite negotiators spend 80% of their time preparing and 20% at the table
Mental Model
Nemawashi (Consensus Building Process)
Nemawashi (literally 'going around the roots' -- from the practice of preparing tree roots before transplanting) is the Japanese organizational practice of building informal consensus before any formal decision is made
Mental Model
Neomania (Attraction to the New)
Taleb's term for the systematic human bias toward the new over the time-tested—the reflexive assumption that newer means better
Cognitive Move
nested circles
A special case of the Euler where every set sits wholly inside the next. Nothing crosses a boundary, so the drawing carries one fact repeatedly: each ring is a subset of the ring around it. It earns its space when the interesting number is how much falls away at each step inward.
Mental Model
Net Present Value
The sum of all future cash flows discounted back to today's value using an appropriate discount rate