Mental Models
Lenses for seeing a situation clearly before you decide.
8 cards
Inversion
Instead of only asking how to succeed, ask what would guarantee failure — then spend your effort avoiding exactly that.
ViewMargin of Safety
Never pay right up to the edge of what you think something is worth — leave room for being wrong.
ViewOpportunity Cost
Every rupee spent on one thing is a rupee that can no longer grow somewhere else — the real cost of a choice is the next-best thing you gave up.
ViewCircle of Competence
Know the edge of what you actually understand — and stop right there, not one step past it.
ViewCompounding
Small, consistent gains don't just add up — they multiply on top of themselves, which is why they look like nothing for a long time and then suddenly don't.
ViewFirst-Principles Thinking
Reason from the bedrock facts you can actually verify, not from "everyone already does it this way."
ViewSecond-Order Thinking
Ask not just what happens next, but what happens after that — the consequence of the consequence.
ViewRegret Minimization
For big, hard-to-reverse decisions, ask which choice you'd regret less looking back, not which one feels safer right now.
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