The Great Mental Models

Name: The Great Mental Models
ISBN: 9781529945737

by Farnam Street, Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien · first published 2020

11mentions

5recommended by

11HN commenters

2019–2026first – last mentioned

45% recommend55% neutral

Why HN recommends it

An approachable, organized introduction to a broad set of general thinking models for beginners. It serves as a starting point for applying several models to everyday problems.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Psychology & Behavior

BuyBookshop.org Amazon

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

View on Open Library ISBN 9781529945737

Mentions per year

What Hacker News says

andrenth · May 13, 2019 · Recommends

* Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger * Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger * The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You * The Great Mental Models
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗
emre · May 13, 2019 · Recommends

…Charlie Munger and these following two books: The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You by Scott Page https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know/dp/04650... and The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish https://www.amazon.com/Great-Mental-Models-Thinking-Concepts...
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗
tombarys · Apr 1, 2022 · Recommends

+ I suggest books from Shane Parrish – The Great Mental Models, which are exactly about solving all or at least many problems by using several (80-90) mental models.
on “Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?” ↗
whilenot-dev · May 22, 2024 · Recommends

Are you looking for something like HWPh[0] (Historical dictionary of philosophy), a 30+ years effort to explain the conceptual history of every philosophical term? There's also a smaller series, like Great Mental Models[1], specifically targeting "abstract concepts" in an approachable manner. Otherwise, mathematics is still the dominant language for expressing abstract concepts. > But there are many words that don't,…
on “Ask HN: Something like Unicode but for abstract concepts?” ↗
febin · Jul 25, 2019 · Recommends

…success in writing(My articles gained some attention and ended up publishing a book with packt). I am still a beginner, long way to become a good model thinker. Here are a few books, I recommend. 1.The Great Mental Models : General Thinking Concepts (Beginner Level) 2.Super Thinking (Intermediate) 3.The Model Thinker (Intermediate-Advanced, you can also take the coursera MOOC "Model Thinking" by the same author) I am…
on “Mental models” ↗
yakshaving_jgt · Jul 20, 2022 · Mentions

I’m currently reading The Great Mental Models. The part I’m reading now is called The Map Is Not The Territory, and it is about formulating abstractions. In this chapter, the author reminds us that we run into problems when our knowledge is that…
on “Small, sharp tools (2014)” ↗
antigremlin · Jun 10, 2022 · Mentions

Many people mentioned the Farnam Street newsletter, but Shane Parrish has also published a book in 3 volumes: The Great Mental Models, see https://fs.blog/books/
on “Tools for Better Thinking” ↗
kshitij_libra · Nov 12, 2023 · Mentions

The Great Mental Models - Shane Parrish
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗
GarnetFloride · Jan 16, 2026 · Mentions

…Writer's Notebook by W. Somerset Maugham * The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll * The Medieval Scriptorium by Sara J. Charles * Chance Particulars by Sara Mansfield Taber, Maud Taber-Thomas * The Great Mental Models Volume 1- General Thinking Concepts by Parrish, Shane; Beaubien, Rhiannon * The Product is Docs by Christopher Gales * Antinet Zettelkasten by Scott P. Scheper Articulating design decisions by Tom…
on “Ask HN: What did you find out or explore today?” ↗
pkaler · Oct 16, 2020 · Mentions

…Luck - Domain Driven Design - Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture - Data-Driven Marketing - Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Monetizing Innovation - Super Thinking - The Great Mental Models - Nonviolent Communication - High Growth Handbook - Powerful - Trillion Dollar Coach
on “What is expected of a engineering manager?” ↗
treetalker · Oct 22, 2024 · Mentions

…using mental models to think. Farnam Street has lots of good, free materials that you can start with and try to start using in your daily life. The site also recently put out a series of books called “The Great Mental Models”. But mental models can be found everywhere. For example, I frequently use Nassim N. Taleb’s mental models of “robustness,” “antifragility,” and “skin in the game.” Likewise, I use the concept of expected…
on “Ask HN: How to Learn 'To Think'?” ↗