The Great Mental Models, Volume 2

Physics, Chemistry, and Biology

By: Farnam Street, Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien

Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

We tend to isolate the things we know in the domain we learned it. For example:

• What does the inertia of a rolling stone have to do with perseverance and being open-minded?
• How can the ancient process of steel production make you a more creative and innovative thinker?
• What does the replication of our skin cells have to do with being a stronger and more effective leader?

On the surface, these concepts may appear to be dissimilar and unrelated. But the surprising truth is the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology) offer a wealth of useful tools you can use to develop critically important skills like:

• Relationship building
• Leadership
• Communication
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Problem-solving
• Decision-making

This second volume of the Great Mental Models series shows you how to make those connections. It explores the core ideas from the hard sciences and offers nearly two dozen models to add to your mental toolbox.

You'll not only get a better understanding of the forces that influence the world around you, but you'll learn how to direct those forces to create outsized advantages in the areas of your life that matter most to you.

©2020 Latticework Publishing Inc. (P)2020 Latticework Publishing Inc.

Broadly applicable & timeless

Don't be deterred by the subtitle. This instant classic is highly relevant for all thinking people, not just those in the sciences. Share Parrish and the Farnam Street team did a wonderful job highlighting critical mental models and bringing them to life with powerful real-world examples. Well worth your time. I look forward to volume 3.

Unexpected wisdom!

I enjoyed this book much more than I had expected. I had no idea that these issues could be put into such useful and practical terms. I highly recommend it!

Practical Information for Decision Making

Builds a foundation under the work of Dalio and Kahneman by applying foundational keystones for identifying decision points and applying scientific models to them.

Mehhhhhh

Read one and three from the series, disregard this one, is well intended but very redundant, for all it dives into is common knowledge. But again, One and Three from the series are phenomenal.

Nice idea, very poorly done

I liked the idea of the book but was really disappointed by it. The examples given generally have little parallel witty the scientific principles they are being compared to, and the attempts to fit the examples into specific models based on the scientific principles doesn’t add any insight or value, and is generally just misleading and distracting. It also appears that the authors have little understanding of the scientific principles as they are frequently misrepresented.
However, on the positive side, I found a number of the examples interesting in their own right. The book could have been a lot better simply by focusing on the various examples in their own right, and what can be learned from them, and change the book title to “Lessons from History” or something similar.