{"id":100619,"date":"2019-01-07T11:50:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T17:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=100619"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:48:39","slug":"mental-models-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/mental-models-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #471: Using Mental Models to Make Better Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We live in a complex, fast-changing world. Thriving in this world requires one to make fast decisions with incomplete information. But how do you do that without making too many mistakes?<\/p>\n<p>My guest today argues that one key is stockpiling your cognitive toolbox with lots of <a href=\"https:\/\/fs.blog\/mental-models\/\">\u201cmental models.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>His name is Shane Parrish (<a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/farnamstreet\">@farnamstreet<\/a>). He\u2019s a former Canadian intelligence officer and the owner of the website <a href=\"https:\/\/fs.blog\/\">Farnam Street<\/a>, which publishes articles about better thinking and decision making and is read by Wall Street investors, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and leaders across domains. We begin our conversation discussing how Shane\u2019s background as an intelligence officer got him thinking hard about hard thinking and why the musings of investors Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger have had a big influence on his approach to decision making.<\/p>\n<p>Shane then shares his overarching decision making philosophy and explains what mental models are and why they\u2019re a powerful tool to make better decisions. We then discuss why you should focus on being consistently not stupid instead of trying to be consistently brilliant and tactics you can use to make better decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We live in a complex, fast-changing world. Thriving in this world requires one to make fast decisions with incomplete information. But how do you do that without making too many mistakes? My guest today argues that one key is stockpiling your cognitive toolbox with lots of \u201cmental models.\u201d His name is Shane Parrish (@farnamstreet). He\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mental Models: Using Them to Make Better Decisions | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We live in a complex, fast-changing world. Thriving in this world requires one to make fast decisions with incomplete information. But how do you do that?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/mental-models-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #471: Using Mental Models to Make Better Decisions | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We live in a complex, fast-changing world. Thriving in this world requires one to make fast decisions with incomplete information. But how do you do that?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/mental-models-decision-making\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-07T17:50:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-01T17:48:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/471.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #471: Using Mental Models to Make Better Decisions\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-07T17:50:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T17:48:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":195,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/471.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mental Models: Using Them to Make Better Decisions | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/mental-models-decision-making\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/01\\\/471.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-07T17:50:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T17:48:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"We live in a complex, fast-changing world. 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