Second-order thinking is the practice of going beyond immediate consequences to consider the long-term ripple effects of a decision. Where first-order thinking stops at “what’s the immediate result?”, second-order thinking goes further: “and then what?”

It’s the difference between quick wins and wise moves.

This model forces you to play out future scenarios - a critical habit in investing, policy-making, product design, and life.

Abstraction Laddering is a mental model that helps you reframe problems by shifting between different levels of abstraction - zooming out to understand the big picture, and zooming in to identify actionable next steps. It helps ensure you’re solving the right problem, not just the most obvious one.

Occam’s razor states that when faced with several possible explanations for a phenomenon, the one that requires the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct.

First principles thinking is a problem-solving and decision-making approach that involves breaking complex issues or concepts down to their fundamental, foundational elements. It encourages examining a problem from its most basic components to gain a deeper understanding and arrive at innovative solutions.

Far too often, we convince ourselves that things need to be difficult and that if we aren’t in some sort of mental or physical turmoil, then we are doing something wrong or not trying hard enough. As a result, we can sometimes actively seek out the path of most resistance and intentionally make things more complicated than they need to be

Subtract to solve is a concept of removing or subtracting something to simplify a situation, or solve a problem.

Inversion involves looking at a problem or situation from the opposite perspective or considering the reverse of the desired outcome. Instead of focusing on how to achieve a particular goal, inversion prompts you to think about how to avoid or prevent the unwanted outcome.