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The Mind Palace Project: How To Enhance Your Cognitive Abilities

The art of adding a dimension of physicality to your mind.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

What is a mind palace — and how do you use it?

In this art­icle, I’ll share my learn­ings and insights from con­struct­ing a mind palace for myself.

A mind palace is a men­tal con­struct of a meta­phys­ic­al build­ing with dif­fer­ent ima­gin­ary “rooms.”

By adding a dimen­sion of phys­ic­al­ity to your mind, the idea is that you’ll be able to use your mind palace not only for mem­or­isa­tion but also to con­trol your emo­tions and enhance your cog­nit­ive abilities.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

My Interest in Mind Palaces

Do you know those pop cul­ture moments that stick — and stay with you? Here are a few such examples from my mind:

  • The nar­rat­or says, “I just wanted to des­troy some­thing beau­ti­ful” in Fight Club (clip).
  • The Alec Baldwin ABC speech in Glengarry Glen Ross (clip).
  • As Neo, Keanu Reeves real­ises he is the one in The Matrix (clip).
  • Matt Damon, as Jason Bourne explains, that he can run flat-out at “this alti­tude for two miles before my hands start shak­ing” (clip).
  • As Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis explains, “Zed’s dead baby, Zed’s dead” (clip).
  • Kyle MacLachlan, as Dale Cooper, is throw­ing rocks togeth­er with the Twin Peaks police depart­ment to increase the effect­ive­ness of his deduc­tions (clip).
  • The Al Pacino speech in Any Given Sunday (clip).

For me, such a sem­in­al moment is from Sherlock, the British TV show star­ring Benedict Cumberbatch:

In the series, Sherlock Holmes and the vil­lain Charles Augustus use a memory tech­nique called the mind palace to com­mit inform­a­tion to memory. 1The tele­vi­sion series Hannibal, star­ring Mads Mikkelsen as the geni­us psy­cho­path with a pecu­li­ar taste for human flesh, also men­tioned a mind palace. Weird eat­ing habits and, more import­antly, … Continue read­ing

The idea of hav­ing a mind palace appealed to me.

Is the mind palace a prop­er tech­nique that one can use?
And if so, how does it work?

Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) has a mind palace of his own.
Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) has a mind palace of his own. Why not unlock your inner Sherlock?

The Method of Loci

As it turns out, a mind palace (or memory palace) isn’t just a tele­vi­sion trope. 

The mind palace is a mne­mon­ic meth­od used by ancient Greek and Roman schol­ars to com­mit large chunks of inform­a­tion to memory called the meth­od of loci (loci = Latin for location).

The prac­tice is straightforward:

Let’s say you want to mem­or­ise a deck of 52 cards. For this, you could think of a house with 13 (52 divided by 4) dif­fer­ent rooms, rooms you pass through in a pre-decided order. 

The first room is a hall­way with a large antique mirror. 

When you read the first card, let’s say an ace of hearts, you men­tally attach the card to the mir­ror — and then you move on to the next room in your sequence.

You place 13 cards in 13 rooms attached to 13 dif­fer­ent pieces of fur­niture. Then you take the same route three more times, secur­ing a new card for anoth­er piece of fur­niture in each room. 

Every room will now con­tain four pieces of fur­niture with one unique card attached.

The ground­work here is to con­struct such a “palace” in your mind before­hand. This means you won’t have to remem­ber rooms or fur­niture pieces. Or their order.

When you test how many of the 52 cards you remem­ber, you enter the first room (the hall­way), look at the first piece of fur­niture (the antique mir­ror), and see — the ace of hearts.

Some indi­vidu­als can take brute force mem­or­isa­tion to almost unbe­liev­able levels:

Amongst many oth­er things, the sav­ant Daniel Tammet is fam­ous for mem­or­ising 22,514 digits of pi in just about five hours. Tammet has described how he exper­i­ences dif­fer­ent num­bers in highly dis­tinct­ive col­ours, char­ac­ter­ist­ics, shapes etc.

It’s impress­ive. But I’m not look­ing to learn par­lour tricks.
What else is there?

Our Brain’s Built-In GPS System

In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awar­ded to John O’Keefe from University College London, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. 

Scientists found that cells in our brain con­sti­tute a pos­i­tion­ing sys­tem. The research­ers found:

… cer­tain neur­ons in the hip­po­cam­pus fired whenev­er a rat was in a cer­tain place in the loc­al envir­on­ment, with neigh­bour­ing neur­ons fir­ing at dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions, such that the entire envir­on­ment was rep­res­en­ted by the activ­ity of these cells through­out the hippocampus.”

Assigning memory neur­ons to fire at spe­cif­ic loc­a­tions is a clev­er way to con­serve men­tal energy. 

The mind palace tech­nique makes good use of this brain fea­ture; by assign­ing an ima­gin­ary (enhanced with oth­er sens­ory inform­a­tion like the smell, sounds, tem­per­at­ure, light­ing con­di­tions, etc.) to a spe­cif­ic memory, recall becomes more accessible.

Mind Palaces in the Media

Here are a few examples of the memory palace or sim­il­ar con­cepts being ref­er­enced in vari­ous forms of media:

  • Sherlock (TV Series, 2010 – 2017). The char­ac­ter Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, fre­quently uses his mind palace to recall details and solve cases. This mod­ern adapt­a­tion of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stor­ies pop­ular­ised the term “mind palace.”
  • Hannibal (TV Series, 2013 – 2015). The char­ac­ter Dr Hannibal Lecter, played by Mads Mikkelsen, employs a memory palace to store and organ­ise his exper­i­ences and memories.
  • Dreamcatcher (Film, 2003). Based on Stephen King’s nov­el of the same name, this film fea­tures a char­ac­ter named Jonesy who uses a memory ware­house to organ­ise his memories.
  • The Mentalist (TV Series, 2008 – 2015). The char­ac­ter Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, some­times uses the memory palace tech­nique to recall information.
  • Doctor Who (TV Series, 1963-Present). In the epis­ode “Heaven Sent” (Season 9, Episode 11), the char­ac­ter of the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, uses a men­tal con­struct sim­il­ar to a memory palace to work through a com­plex and dan­ger­ous situation.
  • Silence of the Lambs (Film, 1991). Dr Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, employs a memory palace in the movie, although it is not expli­citly called a “mind palace” as in the later TV series “Hannibal.”
  • Inception (Film, 2010). While not expli­citly called a memory palace, cre­at­ing and nav­ig­at­ing com­plex men­tal archi­tec­tures to store and retrieve memor­ies plays a cent­ral role in the film’s plot.

Mind Places in Literature

Several examples of the memory palace concept or sim­il­ar ideas appear in the lit­er­at­ure. Some not­able examples include:

  • The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers (Book, 1985). This col­lec­tion of essays by Henri Cartier-Bresson fea­tures a piece called “The Mind’s Eye,” in which he dis­cusses the idea of a men­tal stor­age place for memor­ies, akin to a memory palace.
  • The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play (Book, 1974). This self-help book, by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, intro­duces read­ers to memory tech­niques, includ­ing the memory palace, and provides examples and exer­cises to help improve memory skills.
  • Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (Book, 2011). Written by Joshua Foer, this non-fic­tion book delves into the world of memory cham­pi­on­ships and intro­duces read­ers to the concept of the memory palace, detail­ing how the tech­nique can be employed to remem­ber vast amounts of information
  • The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (Book, 1984). Written by Jonathan D. Spence, this his­tor­ic­al account fol­lows the life of the 16th-cen­tury Jesuit mis­sion­ary Matteo Ricci, who taught the memory palace tech­nique to Chinese scholars.
  • Funes the Memorious (Short story, 1942). Written by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, this short story fea­tures a char­ac­ter named Ireneo Funes with an extraordin­ary memory. While not expli­citly referred to as a memory palace, the character’s abil­ity to recall inform­a­tion in great detail can be seen as related to the concept.
  • The Art of Memory (Book, 1966). Written by Frances A. Yates, this his­tor­ic­al study delves into the his­tory of memory tech­niques, includ­ing the memory palace, and their influ­ence on the intel­lec­tu­al cul­ture of the Renaissance.
  • The Glass Bead Game (Novel, 1943). Hermann Hesse’s nov­el fea­tures a game involving men­tal con­nec­tions between vari­ous fields of know­ledge. Although not expli­citly called a memory palace, the game shares sim­il­ar­it­ies with organ­ising inform­a­tion in one’s mind.
  • Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (Book, 1964). This his­tor­ic­al study by Frances A. Yates explores the life and works of Giordano Bruno, a 16th-cen­tury philo­soph­er pro­ponent of the memory palace technique.

These examples from lit­er­at­ure illus­trate how the memory palace concept has been explored in vari­ous ways, both as a his­tor­ic­al prac­tice and as a nar­rat­ive device to explore the power and lim­its of human memory.

Altering Your Emotional States

In an online memory for­um, I found ongo­ing dis­cus­sions of what oth­er uses there could be for hav­ing a mind palace:

One for­um mem­ber used a mind palace to lower the heart rate before a nerve-wrack­ing speech.

One for­um mem­ber used a mind palace to sleep instead of count­ing sheep.

One for­um mem­ber used a mind palace to pre­pare for meditation.

One for­um mem­ber used a mind palace to increase focus in dis­tract­ing environments.

One for­um mem­ber used a mind palace to rein­force pos­it­ive memor­ies to com­bat depres­sion and increase confidence.

Ergo: Some people have been using their mind palaces to alter or con­trol their emo­tion­al states — with pos­it­ive results. 

To me, this sounds inter­est­ing and poten­tially useful. 

Would it be pos­sible to use a mind palace to improve cog­nit­ive con­trol instead of prac­tising raw mem­or­isa­tion techniques?

Techniques To Enhance Cognitive Abilities

A few years ago, I came across the cre­ativ­ity research­er Win Wenger.

Wenger’s primary hypo­thes­is was out­land­ish yet freak­ishly fantastic: 

Since our sub­con­scious speaks to us visu­ally and not verbally, we can enhance our cog­nit­ive per­form­ance by rein­for­cing our inner image stream.

Here’s an inter­est­ing use case:

Imagine your­self sit­ting in a room with people that you look up to. I could be Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Stephen King. Discuss with them, and ask them ques­tions. Visualise them as they speak.

Soon, your “avatar friends” might start to sur­prise you, con­tra­dict you, or even chal­lenge you. Despite that, their words come from some­where with­in your­self, of course.

From this example, we could ima­gine build­ing a mind palace with sev­er­al rooms filled with dif­fer­ent types of valu­able experts with one sin­gu­lar trait in com­mon — they’re not you, even though they are.

The prac­tice could bring the power of visu­al­isa­tion and loc­a­tion togeth­er, sug­gest­ing a power­ful combination. 

We could start see­ing a “room” in a mind palace as a sep­ar­ate cog­nit­ive tool for pur­poses oth­er than just com­mit­ting inform­a­tion strings to memory.

A boardroom with Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius - Mind Palace
AI art. Prompt: “A board­room with Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius.”

Genius board­rooms. You could exper­i­ment with hav­ing ima­gined board­rooms inhab­ited by geni­uses on standby for dis­cuss­ing decisions and solutions.

Mind Palace “Room” Examples

Of course, you can have rooms you like in your mind palace. Here are a few examples of rooms that I fre­quently use:

A magical meditation room - Mind Palace
AI art. Prompt: “A magic­al med­it­a­tion room.”

Meditation spots. Your mind palace could have rooms designed to strengthen the effects of your med­it­a­tion practice.

A relaxing room onboard a futuristic space station - Mind Palace
AI art. Prompt: “A relax­ing room onboard a futur­ist­ic space station.”

Rehearsal rooms. Before giv­ing a key­note or speech, I like to rehearse them men­tally. I find that it helps me to rehearse my talks in a famil­i­ar space without distractions.

A gothic library study hall - Mind Palace
AI art. Prompt: “A goth­ic lib­rary study hall.”

Memory lib­rary. I ima­gine a lib­rary where everything I ever learnt resides. Searching for the right book helps me retrieve lost memor­ies. To com­mit some­thing to memory, I think of going to the study hall and writ­ing the inform­a­tion down in a book, then pla­cing it some­where spe­cif­ic in the library.

A relaxing Japanese garden under a dome on Mars - Mind Palace
AI art. Prompt: “A relax­ing Japanese garden under a dome on Mars.”

Gardens for walk­ing and think­ing. I think bet­ter when I’m walk­ing. But if I can’t go for a walk, I can always go for a men­tal walk through one of many mind palace gardens.

Building a Mind Palace in Minecraft

For me, con­struct­ing the mind palace has been some­what chal­len­ging. It requires focus and con­cen­tra­tion for long peri­ods. And life tends to get in the way.

Building a rep­lica of my mind palace in Minecraft is help­ing rein­force my memor­ies of its layout.

As with Lego, I nev­er for­get a build. By build­ing the mind palace in Minecraft, I’ve rein­forced the meta­struc­ture in my mind.

This Minecraft trick has giv­en my men­tal struc­ture a form of sta­bil­ity. 2 I’m look­ing for­ward to VR and AR soft­ware ded­ic­ated to the use cases. I wouldn’t mind hav­ing Metaverse mind palace!


Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing it with oth­er PR- and com­mu­nic­a­tion pro­fes­sion­als. For ques­tions or PR sup­port, con­tact me via jerry@​spinfactory.​com.

More Creative Projects

My Creative Projects

I strive to keep learn­ing to enhance my cre­ativ­ity. Here are a few of my more focused projects:

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PR Resource: Mental Models

Mental Models: How To Think Better — Faster

You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”
— Warren Buffett

Mental mod­els emphas­ize the import­ance of view­ing prob­lems from mul­tiple per­spect­ives, recog­niz­ing per­son­al lim­it­a­tions, and under­stand­ing the often unfore­seen inter­ac­tions between dif­fer­ent factors. 

These mod­els are inspired heav­ily by the writ­ings of Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and long-time col­lab­or­at­or of Warren Buffett and many oth­ers.3It’s worth not­ing that these mod­els are not exclus­ively Charlie Munger’s inven­tions but tools he advoc­ates for effect­ive think­ing and decision-mak­ing.

Here’s a list of my favour­ite men­tal models: 

The Iron Prescription—This men­tal mod­el sug­gests that some­times, the most chal­len­ging actions or decisions yield the best long-term res­ults. Sticking to a tough workout involves push­ing through dif­fi­culties and res­ist­ance to achieve great­er rewards. It’s about dis­cip­line, per­sever­ance, and the will­ing­ness to under­take hard tasks for future gain.

The Red Queen Effect—Originating from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass,” this meta­phor describes a situ­ation where one must con­tinu­ously adapt, evolve, and work to main­tain their pos­i­tion. It’s often used in the con­text of busi­nesses need­ing to innov­ate con­stantly to stay competitive.

Occam’s Razor—This prin­ciple sug­gests that the simplest explan­a­tion is usu­ally cor­rect. The one with the few­est assump­tions should be selec­ted when presen­ted with com­pet­ing hypo­theses. It’s a tool for cut­ting through com­plex­ity and focus­ing on what’s most likely true.

Hanlon’s Razor—This mod­el advises not to attrib­ute to malice what can be adequately explained by incom­pet­ence or mis­take. It’s a remind­er to look for sim­pler explan­a­tions before jump­ing to con­clu­sions about someone’s intentions.

Vaguely Right vs Precisely Wrong—This prin­ciple sug­gests it is bet­ter to be approx­im­ately cor­rect than exactly incor­rect. In many situ­ations, seek­ing pre­ci­sion can lead to errors if the under­ly­ing assump­tions or data are flawed. Sometimes, a rough estim­ate is more use­ful than a pre­cise but poten­tially mis­lead­ing figure.

Fat Pitch—Borrowed from base­ball, this concept refers to wait­ing patiently for the per­fect oppor­tun­ity — a situ­ation where the chances of suc­cess are excep­tion­ally high. It sug­gests the import­ance of patience and strik­ing when the time is right.

Chesterton’s Fence—A prin­ciple stat­ing that reforms should not be made until the reas­on­ing behind the exist­ing state of affairs is under­stood. It’s about respect­ing the wis­dom embed­ded in estab­lished prac­tices and con­ven­tions before mak­ing changes.

First-Conclusion Bias—This is the tend­ency to stick with the first con­clu­sion reached without con­sid­er­ing altern­at­ive pos­sib­il­it­ies or addi­tion­al inform­a­tion. It’s a cog­nit­ive bias that can impede crit­ic­al think­ing and thor­ough analysis.

First Principles Thinking—This approach involves break­ing down com­plex prob­lems into their most basic ele­ments and then reas­sembling them from the ground up. It’s about get­ting to the fun­da­ment­al truths of a situ­ation and build­ing your under­stand­ing from there rather than rely­ing on assump­tions or con­ven­tion­al wisdom.

The Map Is Not the Territory—This mod­el reminds us that rep­res­ent­a­tions of real­ity are not real­ity itself. Maps, mod­els, and descrip­tions are sim­pli­fic­a­tions and can­not cap­ture every aspect of the actu­al ter­rit­ory or situ­ation. It’s a cau­tion against over-rely­ing on mod­els and the­or­ies without con­sid­er­ing the nuances of real-world situ­ations. 4Silfwer, J. (2022, November 3). Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​w​a​l​t​e​r​-​l​i​p​p​m​a​nn/

Bell Curve—This curve is a graph­ic­al depic­tion of a nor­mal dis­tri­bu­tion, show­ing how many occur­rences fall near the mean value and few­er occur as you move away from the mean. In decision-mak­ing, it’s used to under­stand and anti­cip­ate vari­ab­il­ity and to recog­nize that while extreme cases exist, most out­comes will cluster around the average.

Compounding—Often used in the con­text of fin­ance, com­pound­ing refers to the pro­cess where the value of an invest­ment increases because the earn­ings on an invest­ment, both cap­it­al gains and interest, earn interest as time passes. This prin­ciple can be applied more broadly to under­stand how small, con­sist­ent efforts can yield sig­ni­fic­ant long-term results.

Survival of the Fittest—Borrowed from evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy, this men­tal mod­el sug­gests that only those best adap­ted to their envir­on­ment sur­vive and thrive. In a busi­ness con­text, it can refer to com­pan­ies that adapt to chan­ging mar­ket con­di­tions and are more likely to succeed.

Mr. Market—A meta­phor cre­ated by Benjamin Graham, rep­res­ent­ing the stock mar­ket’s mood swings from optim­ism to pess­im­ism. It’s used to illus­trate emo­tion­al reac­tions in the mar­ket and the import­ance of main­tain­ing objectivity.

Second-Order Thinking—This kind of think­ing goes bey­ond the imme­di­ate effects of an action to con­sider the sub­sequent effects. It’s about think­ing ahead and under­stand­ing the longer-term con­sequences of decisions bey­ond just the imme­di­ate results.

Law of Diminishing Returns—This eco­nom­ic prin­ciple states that as invest­ment in a par­tic­u­lar area increases, the rate of profit from that invest­ment, after a cer­tain point, can­not increase pro­por­tion­ally and may even decrease. It’s import­ant to under­stand when addi­tion­al invest­ment yields pro­gress­ively smal­ler returns.

Opportunity Cost—This concept refers to the poten­tial bene­fits that one misses out on when choos­ing one altern­at­ive over anoth­er. It’s the cost of the next best option fore­gone. Understanding oppor­tun­ity costs helps make informed decisions by con­sid­er­ing what you must give up when choosing.

Swiss Army Knife Approach—This concept emphas­izes the import­ance of hav­ing diverse tools (or skills). Being ver­sat­ile and adapt­able in vari­ous situ­ations is valu­able, like a Swiss Army knife. This mod­el is par­tic­u­larly use­ful for uncer­tain and volat­ile situations.

Acceleration Theory—This concept indic­ates that the win­ner mustn’t lead the race from start to fin­ish. Mathematically, delay­ing max­im­um “speed” by pro­long­ing the slower accel­er­a­tion phase cor­rectly will get you across the fin­ish line faster. 5Silfwer, J. (2012, October 31). The Acceleration Theory: Use Momentum To Finish First. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​a​c​c​e​l​e​r​a​t​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​o​ry/

Manage Expectations—This concept involves set­ting real­ist­ic expect­a­tions for your­self and oth­ers. It’s about align­ing hopes and pre­dic­tions with what is achiev­able and prob­able, thus redu­cing dis­ap­point­ment and increas­ing sat­is­fac­tion. Effective expect­a­tion man­age­ment can lead to bet­ter per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships and outcomes.

Techlash—This men­tal mod­el acknow­ledges that while tech­no­logy can provide solu­tions, it can cre­ate anti­cip­ated and unanti­cip­ated prob­lems. It’s a remind­er to approach tech­no­lo­gic­al innov­a­tions cau­tiously, con­sid­er­ing poten­tial neg­at­ive impacts along­side the benefits.

World’s Most Intelligent Question—This men­tal mod­el refers to repeatedly ask­ing “Why?” to delve deep­er into a prob­lem and under­stand its root causes. One can uncov­er lay­ers of under­stand­ing that might remain hid­den by con­tinu­ally ask­ing why some­thing happens.

Regression to the Mean—This stat­ist­ic­al prin­ciple states that extreme events are likely to be fol­lowed by more mod­er­ate ones. Over time, val­ues tend to revert to the aver­age, a concept rel­ev­ant in many areas, from sports per­form­ance to busi­ness metrics.

False Dichotomy—This logic­al fal­lacy occurs when a situ­ation is presen­ted as hav­ing only two exclus­ive and mutu­ally exhaust­ive options when oth­er pos­sib­il­it­ies exist. It over­sim­pli­fies com­plex issues into an “either/​or” choice. For instance, say­ing, “You are either with us or against us”, ignores the pos­sib­il­ity of neut­ral or altern­at­ive positions.

Inversion—Inversion involves look­ing at prob­lems back­wards or from the end goal. Instead of think­ing about how to achieve some­thing, you con­sider what would pre­vent it from hap­pen­ing. This can reveal hid­den obstacles and altern­at­ive solutions.

Psychology of Human Misjudgment—This men­tal mod­el refers to under­stand­ing the com­mon biases and errors in human think­ing. One can make more ration­al and object­ive decisions by know­ing how cog­nit­ive biases, like con­firm­a­tion bias or the anchor­ing effect, can lead to flawed reasoning.

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast—Often used in mil­it­ary and tac­tic­al train­ing, this phrase encap­su­lates the idea that some­times, slow­ing down can lead to faster over­all pro­gress. The prin­ciple is that tak­ing delib­er­ate, con­sidered actions reduces mis­takes and inef­fi­cien­cies, which can lead to faster out­comes in the long run. In prac­tice, it means plan­ning, train­ing, and execut­ing with care, lead­ing to smooth­er, more effi­cient oper­a­tions that achieve object­ives faster than rushed, less thought­ful efforts. 6Silfwer, J. (2020, April 24). Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​l​o​w​-​i​s​-​s​m​o​o​th/

Because You Are Worth It—This men­tal mod­el focuses on self-worth and invest­ing in one­self. It sug­gests recog­niz­ing and affirm­ing one’s value is cru­cial for per­son­al growth, hap­pi­ness, and suc­cess. This can involve self-care, edu­ca­tion, or simply mak­ing choices that reflect one’s own value and potential.

Physics Envy—This term describes the desire to apply the pre­ci­sion and cer­tainty of phys­ics to fields where such exactitude is impossible, like eco­nom­ics or social sci­ences. It’s a cau­tion against over­re­li­ance on quant­it­at­ive meth­ods in areas where qual­it­at­ive aspects play a sig­ni­fic­ant role.

Easy Street Strategy—This prin­ciple sug­gests that sim­pler solu­tions are often bet­ter and more effect­ive than com­plex ones. In decision-mak­ing and prob­lem-solv­ing, seek­ing straight­for­ward, clear-cut solu­tions can often lead to bet­ter out­comes than pur­su­ing overly com­plic­ated strategies. 7Silfwer, J. (2021, January 27). The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​e​a​s​y​-​s​t​r​e​e​t​-​p​r​-​s​t​r​a​t​e​gy/

Scale is Key—This concept high­lights how the impact of decisions or actions can vary dra­mat­ic­ally depend­ing on their scale. What works well on a small scale might not be effect­ive or feas­ible on a lar­ger scale, and vice versa. 

Circle of Competence—This concept involves recog­niz­ing and under­stand­ing one’s own areas of expert­ise and lim­it­a­tions. The idea is to focus on areas where you have the most know­ledge and exper­i­ence rather than ven­tur­ing into fields where you lack expert­ise, thereby increas­ing the like­li­hood of success.

Fail Fast, Fail Often—By fail­ing fast, you quickly learn what does­n’t work, which helps in refin­ing your approach or pivot­ing to some­thing more prom­ising. Failing often is seen not as a series of set­backs but as a neces­sary part of the pro­cess towards suc­cess. This mind­set encour­ages exper­i­ment­a­tion, risk-tak­ing, and learn­ing from mis­takes, emphas­ising agil­ity and adaptability.

Correlation Do Not Equal Causation—This prin­ciple is a crit­ic­al remind­er in data ana­lys­is and sci­entif­ic research. Just because two vari­ables show a cor­rel­a­tion (they seem to move togeth­er or oppose each oth­er) does not mean one causes the oth­er. Other vari­ables could be at play, or it might be a coincidence. 

Critical Mass—This men­tal mod­el emphas­izes the import­ance of reach­ing a cer­tain threshold to trig­ger a sig­ni­fic­ant change, wheth­er user adop­tion, mar­ket pen­et­ra­tion, or social move­ment growth. This mod­el guides stra­tegic decisions, such as resource alloc­a­tion, mar­ket­ing strategies, and tim­ing of ini­ti­at­ives, to effect­ively reach and sur­pass this cru­cial point. 8Silfwer, J. (2019, March 10). Critical Mass: How Many Social Media Followers Do You Need? Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​r​i​t​i​c​a​l​-​m​a​s​s​-​f​o​l​l​o​w​e​rs/

Sorites Paradox—Also known as the para­dox of the heap, this para­dox arises from vague pre­dic­ates. It involves a sequence of small changes that don’t seem to make a dif­fer­ence indi­vidu­ally but, when accu­mu­lated, lead to a sig­ni­fic­ant change where the exact point of change is indis­cern­ible. For example, if you keep remov­ing grains of sand from a heap, when does it stop being a heap? Each grain does­n’t seem to make a dif­fer­ence, but even­tu­ally, you’re left with no heap.

The Power of Cycle Times—Mathematically, redu­cing cycle times in a pro­cess that grows expo­nen­tially (like con­tent shar­ing on social net­works) drastic­ally increases the growth rate, lead­ing to faster and wider dis­sem­in­a­tion of the con­tent, thereby driv­ing vir­al­ity. The com­bin­a­tion of expo­nen­tial growth, net­work effects, and feed­back loops makes cycle time a crit­ic­al factor. 9Let’s say the num­ber of new social media shares per cycle is a con­stant mul­ti­pli­er, m. If the cycle time is t and the total time under con­sid­er­a­tion is T, the num­ber of cycles in this time is T/​t​. … Continue read­ing 10Silfwer, J. (2017, February 6). Viral Loops (or How to Incentivise Social Media Sharing). Doctor Spin | the PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​v​i​r​a​l​-​l​o​op/

Non-Linearity—This men­tal mod­el recog­nises that out­comes in many situ­ations are not dir­ectly pro­por­tion­al to the inputs or efforts. It sug­gests that effects can be dis­pro­por­tion­ate to their causes, either escal­at­ing rap­idly with small changes or remain­ing stag­nant des­pite sig­ni­fic­ant efforts. Understanding non-lin­ear­ity helps in recog­niz­ing and anti­cip­at­ing com­plex pat­terns in vari­ous phenomena.

Checklists—This men­tal mod­el stresses the import­ance of sys­tem­at­ic approaches to pre­vent mis­takes and over­sights. Using check­lists in com­plex or repet­it­ive tasks ensures that all neces­sary steps are fol­lowed, and noth­ing is over­looked, thereby increas­ing effi­ciency and accuracy.

Lollapalooza—Coined by Munger, this term refers to situ­ations where mul­tiple factors, tend­en­cies, or biases inter­act so that the com­bined effect is much great­er than the sum of indi­vidu­al effects. It’s a remind­er of how vari­ous ele­ments can con­verge to cre­ate sig­ni­fic­ant impacts, often unex­pec­ted or unprecedented.

Limits—This men­tal mod­el acknow­ledges that everything has bound­ar­ies or lim­its, bey­ond which there can be neg­at­ive con­sequences. Recognizing and respect­ing per­son­al, pro­fes­sion­al, and phys­ic­al lim­its is essen­tial for sus­tain­able growth and success.

The 5Ws—This men­tal mod­el refers to the prac­tice of ask­ing “Who, What, When, Where, Why” (and some­times “How”) to under­stand a situ­ation or prob­lem fully. By sys­tem­at­ic­ally address­ing these ques­tions, one can com­pre­hens­ively under­stand an issue’s con­text, causes, and poten­tial solu­tions, lead­ing to more informed decision-making.

Chauffeur Knowledge—This men­tal mod­el dis­tin­guishes between hav­ing a sur­face-level under­stand­ing (like a chauf­feur who knows the route) and deep, genu­ine know­ledge (like an expert who under­stands the intric­a­cies of a sub­ject). It warns against the illu­sion of expert­ise based on super­fi­cial know­ledge and emphas­izes the import­ance of true, deep understanding.

Make Friends with Eminent Dead—This men­tal mod­el advoc­ates learn­ing from the past, par­tic­u­larly from sig­ni­fic­ant his­tor­ic­al fig­ures and their writ­ings. One can gain valu­able insights and wis­dom by study­ing the exper­i­ences and thoughts of those who have excelled in their fields.

Seizing the Middle—This strategy involves find­ing and main­tain­ing a bal­anced, mod­er­ate pos­i­tion, espe­cially in con­flict or nego­ti­ation. It’s about avoid­ing extremes and find­ing a sus­tain­able, middle-ground solu­tion. Also, centre pos­i­tions often offer the widest range of options.

Asymmetric Warfare—This refers to con­flict between parties of unequal strength, where the weak­er party uses uncon­ven­tion­al tac­tics to exploit the vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies of the stronger oppon­ent. It’s often dis­cussed in mil­it­ary and busi­ness contexts.

Boredom Syndrome—This term refers to the human tend­ency to seek stim­u­la­tion or change when things become routine or mono­ton­ous, which can lead to unne­ces­sary changes or risks. Sometimes, tak­ing no action is bet­ter than tak­ing action, but remain­ing idle is some­times difficult.

Survivorship Bias—This cog­nit­ive bias involves focus­ing on people or things that have “sur­vived” some pro­cess and inad­vert­ently over­look­ing those that did not due to their lack of vis­ib­il­ity. This can lead to false con­clu­sions because it ignores the exper­i­ences of those who did not make it through the pro­cess. 11Silfwer, J. (2019, October 17). Survivorship Bias — Correlation Does Not Equal Causation. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​u​r​v​i​v​o​r​s​h​i​p​-​b​i​as/

Each men­tal mod­el offers a unique lens for view­ing prob­lems, mak­ing decisions, and strategiz­ing, reflect­ing the com­plex­ity and diversity of thought required in vari­ous fields and situations.

In addi­tion, numer­ous oth­er men­tal mod­els are used in vari­ous fields, such as eco­nom­ics, psy­cho­logy, and sys­tems thinking.

Learn more: Mental Models: How To Think Better — And Faster

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 The tele­vi­sion series Hannibal, star­ring Mads Mikkelsen as the geni­us psy­cho­path with a pecu­li­ar taste for human flesh, also men­tioned a mind palace. Weird eat­ing habits and, more import­antly, fant­ast­ic memory techniques.
2 I’m look­ing for­ward to VR and AR soft­ware ded­ic­ated to the use cases. I wouldn’t mind hav­ing Metaverse mind palace!
3 It’s worth not­ing that these mod­els are not exclus­ively Charlie Munger’s inven­tions but tools he advoc­ates for effect­ive think­ing and decision-making.
4 Silfwer, J. (2022, November 3). Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​w​a​l​t​e​r​-​l​i​p​p​m​a​nn/
5 Silfwer, J. (2012, October 31). The Acceleration Theory: Use Momentum To Finish First. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​a​c​c​e​l​e​r​a​t​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​o​ry/
6 Silfwer, J. (2020, April 24). Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​l​o​w​-​i​s​-​s​m​o​o​th/
7 Silfwer, J. (2021, January 27). The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​e​a​s​y​-​s​t​r​e​e​t​-​p​r​-​s​t​r​a​t​e​gy/
8 Silfwer, J. (2019, March 10). Critical Mass: How Many Social Media Followers Do You Need? Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​r​i​t​i​c​a​l​-​m​a​s​s​-​f​o​l​l​o​w​e​rs/
9 Let’s say the num­ber of new social media shares per cycle is a con­stant mul­ti­pli­er, m. If the cycle time is t and the total time under con­sid­er­a­tion is T, the num­ber of cycles in this time is T/​t​. The total reach after time T can be approx­im­ated by m(T/​t), assum­ing one ini­tial share. When t decreases, T/​t​ increases, mean­ing more cycles occur in the same total time, T. This leads to a high­er power of m in the expres­sion m(T/​t), which means a sig­ni­fic­antly lar­ger reach.
10 Silfwer, J. (2017, February 6). Viral Loops (or How to Incentivise Social Media Sharing). Doctor Spin | the PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​v​i​r​a​l​-​l​o​op/
11 Silfwer, J. (2019, October 17). Survivorship Bias — Correlation Does Not Equal Causation. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​u​r​v​i​v​o​r​s​h​i​p​-​b​i​as/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at KIX Index and Spin Factory. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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