Check Your Mental Models

We create mental models to help us organize the complicated aspects of our lives. They are combinations of emotions and verbal and non-verbal stimuli.?

The term 'model' is useful: Models aren’t the thing; they are just representations of it. They contain only as much detail as necessary. They serve as mental shorthand.

Mental models are automatic routines we use to apply the approximately correct behaviors to different situations: We use them without conscious thought. We develop these before events happen when we imagine how something will unfold in detail. We refer to this as planning or daydreaming.

We construct them by mentally reengineering past events into new memories and narratives. When we do this in the present moment, it's known as learning.

Mental models and emotional bookmarks are crucial for our survival and for managing the ever-increasing complexity of modern life. They enable us to navigate existence without heavily relying on working memory.

The downside is that we often pay very little attention to what is actually happening around us.