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People, books, and breakthrough ideas—connected to the mental models and moves you can use.

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Mental Model

Attachment-Based Therapy Principles

Attachment-based therapy applies Bowlby's attachment theory to clinical practice, understanding psychological distress through the lens of disrupted attachment relationships

Cognitive Move

Attend

Can you deliberately point your attention at the thing the task needs and keep it there long enough to work?

Mental Model

Attention as Moral Practice (Simone Weil)

Philosopher and mystic Simone Weil argued that attention is not merely a cognitive faculty but a moral and spiritual practice — that 'attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.' Weil's concept of 'attention'…

Cognitive Move

Attention Before Meaning

When you feel a desperate urge to explain or accuse, stabilize attention first and list at least two possible meanings before choosing any of them.

Mental Model

Attention Economy as Personal Resource Management

Herbert Simon first noted in 1971 that 'a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.' The Attention Economy model, applied at the personal level, treats attention as your scarcest resource — more finite than t…

Mental Model

Attention Merchant Model (Wu)

Tim Wu's 'attention merchant' framework describes the business model of capturing human attention cheaply and reselling it to advertisers

Mental Model

Attention Residue Effect

Sophie Leroy's research on attention residue demonstrates that when you switch from Task A to Task B, your attention doesn't completely transfer — a 'residue' of Task A continues to occupy working memory, reducing perfor…

Mental Model

Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan) Applied

Stephen and Rachel Kaplan's Attention Restoration Theory (ART) distinguishes two types of attention: directed attention (voluntary, effortful, and depletable — used for focused work) and involuntary attention (effortless…

Mental Model

Attractor States

In dynamical systems theory, states toward which a system naturally evolves and to which it returns after perturbation—like a marble rolling to the bottom of a bowl

Mental Model

Attribution Error (Correspondence Bias)

The fundamental attribution error: the tendency to attribute others' behavior to their character (dispositional attribution) while attributing your own behavior to circumstances (situational attribution)

Mental Model

Attrition warfare

The strategy of wearing down an opponent through sustained losses in personnel, resources, and morale rather than through decisive battles or maneuvers

Mental Model

Auctions

Auctions determine allocation and payment through bidding rules

Mental Model

Audience

The communication principle that every message must be designed for its specific RECEIVER, not for the sender's preferences—because the audience's existing knowledge, values, language, concerns, and attention determine h…

Mental Model

Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment evaluates learners through tasks mirroring real-world challenges rather than decontextualized tests

Mental Model

Authentic Self vs. Performed Self

The tension between authentic self-expression and strategic self-presentation is one of the central challenges of modern identity

Mental Model

Authority Principle

The authority principle describes how perceived expertise or status can increase a person's influence

Mental Model

Authority-Misinfluence Tendency

Munger's term for the tendency to be excessively influenced by authority figures—following their direction or adopting their views without independent evaluation

Mental Model

Autocatalysis

An autocatalytic reaction is a chemical reaction in which a product or intermediate also functions as a catalyst

Cognitive Move

Automate / Monitor

Let a stable rule run or watch for a condition automatically, always with bounds and an exception path.