M · MAP
Quick Recipes
Short methods that combine cognitive moves. Try one, then check whether it helps.
Which move fits?
Short methods that combine cognitive moves. Try one, then check whether it helps.
← M · MAPChoose a branch or move
- Ban-the-Map
When your current framing keeps producing the same answers, ban one of its core elements for five minutes and build three replacements before comparing.
- 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.
- Person to Handoff
When blame lands on an individual in coordinated work, look instead at the handoff or interface nearest the failure.
- Event to Loop
When a fix works briefly and the problem returns, trace one consequence back to an earlier cause and mark its sign and delay.
- Snapshot to Movie
When a present state seems inexplicable, draw the before, transition, and now frames, then predict the next one.
- Average to Distribution
When the average describes almost nobody, show the spread, subgroups, and tails instead.
- Category to Continuum
Replace a brittle binary label with one or two measurable axes and locate the boundary cases.
- Outcome to Mechanism
When a target is being mistaken for a plan, draw the shortest causal chain from intervention to outcome and mark the weakest link.
- Boundary Sweep
When a seemingly self-contained system keeps surprising you, add one upstream layer, one downstream layer, one adjacent actor, and one externality, then prune what changes nothing.
- 10x In / 10x Out
When the useful scale is unclear, inspect a unit ten times smaller and a system ten times larger and compare which gives you more control.
- Reverse the Arrow
When forward reasoning branches too widely, start from the endpoint and ask what had to be true immediately before it.
- Change the Observer
When one viewpoint is treated as the whole situation, write one sentence each from the actor, recipient, operator, outsider, and future-self views.
- Missing Column
When a debate keeps repeating, put the options in rows and add the one column whose values could reverse the judgment.
- Minimal Pair
When two concepts blur together, build two cases identical except for one feature and ask whether your classification or action should change.
- Constraint Sandwich
When optimization is damaging something important, write 'improve X, while preserving Y, under Z' and map what's actually feasible.
- Table Before Prose
When long prose keeps repeating the same fields, pull the entities into rows and the attributes into columns, keeping narrative only for exceptions.
- Draw Before Explain
When dependencies are hard to hold in words, draw nodes and typed arrows first, and delete any edge you cannot define.
- Three Translations
When you can't tell whether your framing or your format is failing, encode the same content in three media and run the same task on each.
- State Ledger
When work keeps restarting after interruptions, keep one persistent page holding current state, open questions, decisions, and the next action.
- Manipulable Toy
When a theory sounds right but its consequences stay vague, build the smallest spreadsheet, simulation, or prototype with one variable you can change.