Requirements and commonalities of the mental models

I recommend you to build your own latticework of mental models. It doesn´t matter whether you are talking about a general latticework or a latticework related in your area of expertise, or you are combining them. No matter who you are, you don´t use all the same models than others. You are an individual and you have your own needs and wants. You have to figure out yourself the models that have the greatest importance. Everyone should use most of the models I have introduced in their own general latticework, but not all of them. There are some requirements or commonalities about the models that should be used.

Models are evergreen

All the models have to withstand the test of time. Most of them were true thousands or billions of years ago, like psychological tendencies and compounding. Scientific principles behind them may have been proven in the last few hundred years, but people have known their existence much longer. When you are building your latticework of mental models, you should focus on the models that haven´t changed for a long time. Basic principles of all the major disciplines like mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry are a good starting point. These principles have been true for a long time and will be true in the future.

You have to understand that some of the models I have introduced and some models you think are important can change in the future. The biggest changes come from artificial intelligence. Many models of human behavior will become less useful. When you will have a smaller role in decision making, many psychological tendencies have smaller influence on your behavior. To be honest, I have no idea if or when this happens. It is beyond my expertise.

Models are versatile

Single purpose for a single model is not enough. All your models have to have many useful applications and have various uses. For example, inertia can be seen as a habit, status quo preservation, or it can be used for forecasting a movement of objects, etc. All the models you have in your latticework should have many purposes. Instead of looking out for a model that is a solution for a single problem, it should be possible to use it as a solution or part of it for many problems. There are thousands or even millions of different models. By using versatile models, you can minimize the amount of models you need to understand. Deep understanding of a smaller amount of models is more important than knowing many single models.

Models have to be interconnected with many other models. For example, when inertia, the path of least resistance, critical mass, and some other models are combined, you understand habits and their formation better than you would undertand by thinking only about inertia. Most things in the world are interconnected somehow. You limit your understanding by using models with no interconnections with other models. With this understanding you understand all disciplines better. For example, by using models only from economics, you don´t understand economics as well as by understanding how they are connected with models from other disciplines like psychology, or even physics.

Models are simple

You have to make your models in the latticework as simple as possible, but no more simpler. The definition of the model has to be simple. It cannot be many sentences long. Most adults have to understand it by reading it once. Even though simple models are important, deep understanding of them can take years. Simple models and how they can be used are hard to understand. Most people cannot understand complex models. And less people understand how many simple models are interconnected. Understanding interconnections of many complex models is close to impossible. This is the reason why all the models have to be simple. Basic principles in the most important scientific disciplines are a starting point. They are the most profound and simplest models. By understanding them, you can understand more about the world and people in it than most of the other people. The amount of models you have to understand becomes smaller. And you have a restricted bandwith. You cannot understand hundreds of profound models. You can understand only tens of them.

These are the most important requirements or commonalities of the most useful mental models. By using them, you can create your latticework. You can have other requirements too. These are just mine.

-TT