Mental Model
Noise (Daniel Kahneman)
Kahneman's distinction between bias (systematic error in one direction) and noise (random, unwanted variability in judgments)
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Mental Model
Noise in the Virtual Hotel
Dennett contrasts incidental interactions in physical worlds with the selective causal structure of virtual worlds
Mental Model
Noise vs Signal
The fundamental challenge of extracting meaningful information (signal) from irrelevant variation (noise)
Cognitive Move
Nominal roles to functional variables
Titles and role names carry assumptions about what someone does. Drop the title and list the actual jobs being performed, each one measurable on its own, so you can see which functions are covered, missing, or handled by someone else entirely.
Mental Model
Nondual Awareness (Subject-Object Collapse in Contemplative Experience)
The contemplative experience described across traditions (Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Christian mysticism, Sufism) where the ordinary sense of a separate self observing experience dissolves—and awareness itself remains wi…
Mental Model
Nonlinearity
Nonlinearity means that a relationship fails the relevant linearity conditions
Mental Model
Nonresponse Bias
The distortion that occurs when people who don't respond to surveys, studies, or feedback requests differ systematically from those who do respond—making the collected data unrepresentative of the full population
Mental Model
Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg): Observation, Feeling, Need, Request
Marshall Rosenberg's communication framework designed to express needs and resolve conflicts without blame, criticism, or coercion
Mental Model
Nonviolent Communication Four-Step Protocol (Rosenberg)
A four-step communication protocol developed by Marshall Rosenberg for expressing needs without triggering defensiveness
Mental Model
Nonviolent Communication Process (Rosenberg)
Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) provides a four-step process for expressing yourself and hearing others in ways that create connection rather than conflict: (1) Observation — state what you concretely…
Mental Model
Normal Accidents Theory (Perrow)
Charles Perrow's seminal insight: in systems that are both complex (many non-linear interactions) and tightly coupled (processes happen fast with little slack), catastrophic failures are inevitable—'normal'—regardless of…
Mental Model
Normal Distribution
The normal distribution is specified by a mean and positive standard deviation
Mental Model
Normalcy Bias
The psychological tendency to underestimate the probability and impact of disruptions—assuming that because things have been normal, they will continue to be normal
Mental Model
Normalization of Deviance (Vaughan)
Diane Vaughan's concept from the Challenger disaster: when rule violations or anomalies occur repeatedly without immediate consequence, they become accepted as normal operating procedure
Mental Model
North Star Metric
A North Star metric is a central product measure intended to represent delivered customer value and guide coordinated decisions
Mental Model
Not-Invented-Here Syndrome
The organizational tendency to reject external ideas, solutions, or technologies in favor of internally developed alternatives—even when external options are superior
Cognitive Move
notation
A compact symbol set for things you say constantly, plus the legend that decodes it. Compression is the point and the risk: once a pattern is three characters long, you can write 40 instances of it and see the repeat. If the legend goes missing, the notation becomes private.
Cognitive Move
Notice
Right after the small move, read two separate meters: whether your thinking was actually available, and what the work objectively produced. Score each on its own. How pleasant the attempt felt is not one of the meters and does not override either reading.
Mental Model
Notification Triage System
Notification triage applies medical triage logic to digital interruptions, categorizing into four tiers: Tier 1/Immediate (time-sensitive: emergency calls, critical alerts), Tier 2/Scheduled (important but batchable 2-3…
Cognitive Move
Noun to Verb
Rewrite a static label as an ongoing process ('motivation' becomes 'conditions that initiate and sustain action') so it becomes something you can influence.
Cognitive Move
Novice
Run the situation past someone who knows nothing about the domain. Their basic questions expose the background knowledge you assumed everyone shares, and the shorthand, jargon, and unstated context that make your framing unreadable to an outsider.
Cognitive Move
Now
The nearest column covers the days and weeks you can actually feel: the state you want by the end of this stretch, plus the one price you are already paying to get it. Keep it specific and immediate, not aspirational.
Mental Model
Nuclear option
A nuclear option is a colloquial label for an extreme action that could fundamentally change or end an arrangement