🛠️ Toolbox #11: Mental Models, Brain Malware & Inverted Thinking

🛠️ Welcome to the Weekly Toolbox. Our most practical resources, tools and strategies so you can level up each week in minutes.

1. The Real Problem with the Learning Styles ‘Myth’| Jared Cooney Horvath

Learning styles have copped a lot of heat over the past few years. The whole are you are visual/auditory/kinesthetic learner thing. Well, is it actually a myth? Or is it simply a practical irrelevance to leverage this idea in the classroom? This it probably the most nuanced discussion we’ve seen on this, so if you’re a student, educator or just appreciate the science of learning, this is a goodie.

2. Social Media as Brain Malware

The average person spends 2 hours and 23 minutes a day scrolling social media. How much untrusted info are we downloading directly into our brains? Every piece of media is a potential form of brain malware.

This tweet hit hard, sparking a much-needed think about our info diet. Maybe we need more deliberate consumption to protect our brains from mental malware in a social media trojan horse. Our brains need (info) diets too.

3. What are Mental Models? | BrainTools #82

The phrase mental models has entered the intellectual lexicon of late. But what actually are they? And how do the top 1% of decision makers leverage these powerful cognitive tools? You’ll find out in this 5-minute snack episode, with practical examples for you to use immediately.

Listen on Apple or Spotify.

🤔 Brain Riddle

How do you make the number one disappear?

Find the answer at the bottom of the newsletter!

🪇 Decision Reactivity Buffers

Are you a super reactive person?

Try a 5 minute decision reactivity buffer.

Research shows waiting just a few minutes before making judgements reduces the likelihood they will be based solely on instinct and emotion.

Implementation

If you feel yourself making a reactive decision, then

1. Write down the decision

2. Activate a 5 minute timer on your phone

3. Pause and distract yourself with other tasks

4. Come back 5 minutes later with a reset brain state

This helps reduce the impact of heightened arousal and bias from the flood of neurotransmitters secreted when in a highly reactive state. Meaning you’ll make less reactive, more weighted decisions.

Helping you act less irrational to make better judgement calls.

Further Reading & Studies

• The effect of time on decision making

• Reported Affect Changes as a Function of Response Delay

🔄 Inverted Thinking

Charlie Monger, Warren Buffet’s right-hand man has a famous mantra: 

“Invert. Always invert.”*

We tend to look at problems in one direction - forwards. 

But in order to solve problems, you need to look in two directions - forwards AND backwards. 

This is inverted thinking. When you’re faced with a problem, flip it.

Implementation

When we say “flip it”, we mean it literally. Turn it upside down and look it from the opposite angle. Here are some examples:

• Don’t ask “what do I do?”. Ask, “what do I not do?” 

• Don’t ask “what do I want?”. Ask, “what do I not want?”

• For the golfers. Don’t ask: “how do I score lower?” Ask: “how do I avoid scoring higher?”

• For students taking tests. Don’t ask: “how do I get more marks?” Ask: “how do I stop losing marks?”"

• Improving innovation at your company. Don’t ask “How do I improve innovation?”. Ask, “How do I stop discouraging innovation?”

We often try to come up with the best idea or strategy. But there are more ways things can go wrong than right.

That’s the beauty of inversion - it helps you make more robust decisions. You see the complete picture, not the picture you want to see. 

After all and as we said in Toolbox #9, avoiding stupidity is much easier than seeking brilliance. 

*This was inspired by a famous German mathematician called Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. He solved problems through the mantra “Man muss immer umkehren”. My German sucks, but it loosely translates to: “Invert, always invert”.

Research & Further Reading

• Inversion: The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Taught You

• How Charlie Munger Uses Inversion Thinking in Life