Second Order Thinking
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
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
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
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.
Subtract To Solve
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.