The Model Thinker
by Scott E. Page · first published 2018
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Broad survey of mathematical and social-science models for decision-making; valued as a reference to dip into, useful for beginners building a toolkit and for those who grasp the intuitions behind the models.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"We confront no end of complex problems: why is inequality on the rise? Why are more and more Americans clinically obese? Does a racially diverse team make better decisions? How can we predict the outcomes of elections? At the same time, we find ourselves awash in data, be it on the opioid crisis, college admissions, genetic correlates of disease, financial transactions, or athletic performance. To confront such complexity and put that data to use, we need models: we can use linear regression to predict sales growth, or a power-law distribution to explain city sizes and book sales. Although ea
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Scott Page ( from U Michigan who is the creator of the class) has written a book on models called Model Thinker. I’m currently reading it and think it is pretty good!
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗I would recommend Poor Charlie's Almanack by 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…
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗Yes. I was recommended Page's "The Model Thinker" https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know/dp/04650... when this YC topic popped up. Page's book is sort of a reference book, something you use periodically rather than a beginning-to-end…
on “Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models” ↗…established ones to keep track of and I at times find myself trying hard to remember them vs. just moving forward and building my own. That said this book has helped enormously -- https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know/dp/04650... Introduced via the interview between the author and Shane Parish @ Knowledge Project (Farnam Street).
on “Ask HN: What’s the hardest part about learning and using mental models?” ↗For me, this was also the most interesting course. But I don't think you can still access it (I tried a couple of months ago to revisit it). But Scott Page also has a book out on the topic "The Model Thinker", which covers most of the course.
on “Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?” ↗* How to Solve it – A New Aspect of Mathematical Method by George Polya. * The Thinker's Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving by Morgan Jones. * The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You by Scott Page. * The Decision Book: Fifty models for strategic thinking by Krogerus & Tschappeler.
on “Ask HN: What's a good problem solving framework/method?” ↗I really didn't enjoy this book. Too fluffy for me. Better alternatives: The Model Thinker, or Algorithms to Live By!
on “The Decision Book: Fifty models for strategic thinking” ↗I'm reading The Model Thinker at the moment. +1
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗If you like this - Buy and read The Model Thinker.
on “Mental Models Box – A collection of models useful in everyday life” ↗…on this for a long time now. It helped me achieve small 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…
on “Mental models” ↗The Model Thinker is also an excellent book! It's more mathematical models, but if you understand the intuitions behind the models then they are a great additional to your thinking tools.
on “Mental Models Box – A collection of models useful in everyday life” ↗I'm reading the 'Model Thinker'. That's a great course.
on “Ask HN: What are you learning?” ↗…Downey's "Think Complexity" [1], which is discrete systems (computational systems) focussed. Maybe you could think about Downey's book is a non mathematical approach to algorithms. Scott E Page's book "The Model Thinker" is more mathematical, at an undergrad engineering level, and is more of a survey of models than a taxonomic overview of systems modeling, which is what Sayama's [2] book, above, offers. A thesis of Page's…
on “Introduction to the Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems” ↗> Is this a book review? Yes, for this book: https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know/dp/04650... > What does the title have to do with the article? Nothing. It's a click-baity allusion to this famous book: https://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/03933...
on “A Random Walk Down Sand Hill Road” ↗Just bought a copy of this book, and started reading it: https://www.amazon.com/Model-Thinker-What-Need-Know-ebook/dp... (Authored by the same Scott Page who teaches the Model Thinking Coursera course. I came across the recommendation in a recent HN thread, but found watching videos to be too…
on “Ask HN: What are you doing this weekend?” ↗