Mental frameworks, sometimes called mental models or schema, are what we use to simplify the complexity of the world. They are tools that allow us to block out the noise so that we can pay attention to the signal. Without any mental modeling, we are overwhelmed by the nearly infinite information coming at us. And with just one or two frameworks, you risk biasing your thinking too much. But by collecting a plethora of frameworks into your mental toolbox, you will have the best chance of thinking clearly and making good decisions.

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mental models

What Are Mental Frameworks?

A framework is a foundation—a structure—that holds something together. And mental frameworks, or mental models, are the mental structures that allow us to properly think. They are a kind of implicit explanation or mental software that allows us to more easily analyze and understand reality.

Because they are not perfect, each model is like a heuristic—it is a mental representation that approximates reality for practical purposes. And while the best mental frameworks have broad utility, none of them provide a complete view of the world.

This is why mental models are not about fundamental truth but about utility. For example, when you’re driving a car, do you want to be thinking about protons, electrons, and quantum mechanics, or do you want to use a model of big moving metal boxes that you should avoid crashing into?

So mental frameworks are like pieces of software that act as mental shortcuts. A cognitive model tells us what principles are most important in our current environment so that we do not get lost in isolated facts. They highlight what is relevant to improve decision making and critical thinking.

You can read our full article on reasoning with mental models here: Mental Models And Critical Thinking

Great Mental Models Simplify Complexity

The world is infinitely complex, and it can easily overwhelm our perception and reasoning. It is impossible for the brain to understand this complex world without a conceptual model that highlights important/relevant information. So as we develop, our brains build up cognitive schema (aka mental models) that describe the world and represent the relationships and systems within it.

Our perception gives us so much information, and the brain can automatically notice patterns and create ideas and context for what is happening around us. We create a theory to represent how something works, and we test that theory by noticing the outcomes around us.

As children, these mental schemas are simple and low resolution. For example, a child might build the schema for a dog—walks on four legs, is friendly, has a tail, etc—and later have to update that model (and build new ones) when they encounter a horse or a cow.

But even as we get older, no mental model is ever fully accurate. Either implicitly or explicitly, we retain the frameworks that are most useful to us. As British statistician George Box once said, “All models are wrong, some are useful.”

Useful here means that they stand up to the test of reality—they actually help us act in the world. They are generalizable and most importantly they don’t get us killed. Some of this mental software, like snake detection, is so important to our Darwinian fitness that it comes prewired. But other mental frameworks, like those listed below, are more consciously built.

Of course, oversimplification is bad—imagine confusing a dog and a horse your entire life—but the truth is that we have to simplify in order to act. Because we can’t pay attention to everything, we must ignore certain things in order to see others.

So mental models are like pieces of software that simplify complexity. They are lenses that block the noise and boost the signal, allowing us to see.

The Importance of Having Multiple Models

Even though human reasoning is powerful, bias is fundamental to how our brains work. Our conscious thinking is biased, but cognitive psychology tells us that our unconscious also biases the information we get to access. As psychologist Dr. Molly Crockett has said, “Bias is the brain’s strategy for dealing with too much information“.

And mental frameworks or schema also bias us. They decide what information is the signal and what is the noise. A person sees the pattern relevant to a specific mental model, temporarily blocking other possibilities. In a pinch, where you have to make a split-second decision, this is okay. But more generally, using only one framework can be a problem—we limit ourselves to that one perspective.

So a person with multiple mental models can analyze a situation from many perspectives. When an expectation from an existing mental model fails to materialize, a different mental model might create a much more accurate inference about reality, increasing the chance of comprehension and a better decision.

Our Approach To Mental Models

Kodawari normally means you are pursuing perfection in a craft or career path. But Exploring Kodawari was launched with the idea that one can make kodawari a philosophy of life. You can apply the kodawari energy to the ultimate project of self-development.

So we’re taking a slightly different approach to mental models here. These frameworks are more like tools/concepts that can help you on that path of self-development. We normally develop just a few frameworks related to our specialization. But this limits how clearly we can see the world and notice its patterns. The goal here is to help ourselves (and our readers) build a database of mental models that you might otherwise never encounter.

So far, our frameworks blend science (especially psychology), philosophy, art, and meditation to find a unique mix of perspectives. But as the circumambulation framework below asserts, we will discover how this develops along the way.

The models here are loose enough that sometimes it will just be a conceptual framework or just an interesting finding in psychology. But they will all contain information that will help you to live a more balanced and consistent life.

Our List of Frameworks

Below is our growing list of mental frameworks. The names should help you to more easily build up your mental toolbox.

While labels allow you to more easily and quickly utilize a mental model, the frameworks are not just a name or short description—when uncompressed they contain a depth of knowledge. And to really own a mental framework, you have to go through the effort of internalizing it and filling it with real-world/personal examples.

Linked frameworks will take you to the full article. If not linked, then it is a framework that we are currently thinking about and hoping to expand into a full article in the future.

1. Kodawari

Kodawari is the founding concept of this website/podcast. As a Japanese concept word, it means the pursuit of perfection all the while knowing that perfection is unattainable. As a philosophy of life, kodawari says that you should aim at the best version of who you could be—and try your best at getting there—while knowing that you can never really arrive.

2. The Modular Mind

The modular model of the mind says that, despite our illusion of unity, the mind is made of multiple modules that compete for our attention. As the psychologist, Douglas T. Kenrick says: “We are all multiple personalities, with several different selves insides our heads.” And while learning about them can be disturbing, it also provides us with greater freedom.

3. The Null Hypothesis (Why you should have fewer opinions)

The null hypothesis is a concept from inferential statistics that is designed to avoid experimental bias. It’s the default assumption that there is no relationship between two phenomena. But in more general terms as a mental model, the null hypothesis is the ability to resist forming an opinion on something until you genuinely see a signal emerging out of the noise. It’s also a reminder that it takes a lot of research before you deserve to have an opinion. Considering how biased our brains are, the null hypothesis is a safe way to avoid looking foolish.

4. Consciousness

Perhaps consciousness is the fundamental mental framework—it’s the vantage point through which you experience everything. In fact, for you, consciousness is everything because it is experience. Whether it emerges from neural processing or is some other mystery yet to be discovered, your consciousness is the one thing in the universe that has to be real.

5. Circumambulation

Circumambulation, a term used by Carl Jung, says that the path of self-development is not a straight line but instead a series of circles. This is because as you develop you also change and make course corrections. As Jung described it: “The way to the goal seems chaotic and interminable at first, and only gradually do the signs increase that it is leading anywhere. The way is not straight but appears to go in circles.”

6. Beginner’s Mind

In a way, beginner’s mind is a warning about the potential downside of mental models. It’s a reminder that we should sometimes see the world without any frameworks or filters. Because as we gain life experience and wisdom, we also lose novelty. And novelty is what captures our attention to be fully in the present, to see something with fresh eyes. As the Zen monk, Shunryu Suzuki said: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few”.

7. Metacognition

The prefix meta means “beyond” or “on top of”, and metacognition is stepping beyond ordinary cognition. It is having awareness about how the process of thinking works. The higher level of metacognition (meta-awareness) is essentially mindfulness—a bird’s-eye view of the mind from which you can notice the patterns of how “you” work while staying detached.

8. The Steel Man

The Steel Man Technique is an extremely powerful tool that counters a horrible human tendency, the straw man fallacy. When we’re in a debate or argument, our tendency is to argue against a weakened version of our opponent’s position (aka a straw man). We highlight their weakest points and even distort them in order to more easily win. But in the steel man technique, we do the opposite—we build the strongest version of our opponent’s argument that we can. It might even be better than what they’ve made, and they must agree to our representation of it. Only then, once we truly understand their position, can we try to disagree with it.

9. Chaos and Order

Chaos vs. Order is perhaps the most fundamental mental model. When we analyze reality, we differentiate it into categories—we put boundaries between things. And making a division between chaos and order is the most fundamental categorization that we can make—it’s actually built into the hemispheric structure of our brains. Mythologically it is the duality of Yin vs. Yang or Mother Nature vs. Father Culture. Physically it is the duality of entropy (randomness) vs structure. And personally, it is the division between the known and the unknown, the expected and the unexpected.

10. Hedonic Adaptation

Hedonic adaptation, also known as the hedonic treadmill, is the tendency of humans to consistently return to a base level of happiness. Our happiness has a kind of “set point”, and positive or negative events only temporarily shift us away from it. A spiritual solution to the problem of hedonic adaptation, one supported by modern psychology, can be summed up by this Guillaume Apollinaire quote: “Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” Basically, break the hedonic treadmill problem by stepping off of the treadmill.

11. Russell Conjugation

Russell Conjugation (or emotional conjugation), coined by Bertrand Russell in 1948, is a rhetorical technique used to manipulate. It is an extremely subtle form of deceit in which one uses synonyms to change the emotional impact without changing the factual meaning. Here is an example of a Russell Conjugation in three layers ranging from positive to neutral to negative: I am prudent with money, you are thrifty, he is cheap.

12. Axioms

An axiom is an assumption of truth, and it is how we stop the infinite recursion problem of constantly asking “but why must that be true?”. Axioms are the first-principle bedrock assumptions—a priori knowledge—upon which we build further knowledge and ethics. Even science has necessary axiomatic assumptions in order to get off the ground. For example, science assumes (and can’t falsify) that the universe is a consistent and rational place that follows cause and effect.

13. The Myth of Sisyphus

Sisyphus was a king from Greek mythology who was punished for cheating death by being forced to eternally roll a giant boulder up a hill. Just as the boulder approached the top, it would slip from his reach and roll back down. It highlights the absurdity of human life, and its lesson resonates with the kodawari philosophy: it is not the attainment of goals that makes life meaningful but rather moving towards them with your best effort. As Albert Camus said in his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus: “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

14. Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is one of the many biases that cognitive science has documented. A cognitive bias is a specific pattern of illogical/irrational thinking that distorts our perception and judgment. And confirmation bias is the tendency a person has to search for and remember the information that confirms prior beliefs. Like a mental model, a cognitive bias is not always bad since it often has the utility of making us act quickly when needed. Check out similar mental models in the category of cognitive biases.

15. Pareto Principle

Named after the Italian civil engineer and economist Vilfredo Pareto, the Pareto principle is a rough approximation stating that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Pareto first observed this by seeing that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. Mathematicians call this the 80/20 rule, and it manifests itself all throughout reality.