🖐️Stop Reading About Mental Models
The one secret you kinda already knew.
Reading about mental models is like trying to learn to ride a bike from a book.
You can read, think and talk about riding a bike, but you won't be able to actually ride one.
The only way to get the feel for a mental model is to practice.
A friend of mine once described how he was learning to play the piano. He said that when he reads music, it was like watching a movie. He said he could see each note in his mind, and when he played the music in his head, it came out sounding perfectly.
But when he actually got to the piano and tried to play, he had forgotten what he'd read. He had to read the notes over and over again before he could play them.
If you read about mental models, you can understand them in words. But while you're reading, you don't have a chance to try to apply them. And if you don't try to apply a mental model, you won't learn it.
Reading about bike riding might work for someone who knows how to ride a bike already, but it's a lot more likely to confuse the beginner.
How did I learn to ride a bike?
I watched a friend of mine riding a bike and tried to repeat after him.
I kept trying to do the same thing, and I fell off a lot.
But I kept at it, and eventually I rode.
If you want to learn to ride a bike, you'd be better off practicing as much as you can.
Even better is following someone else riding a bike. Watching someone else means you can learn without having to make mistakes. You can see exactly what's going on.
But once you can ride, you can forget about that person who taught you how to ride.
You can just get on a bike and ride, no instructions required. With practice, you'll be able to ride a bike by instinct. You won't have to think about it.
And you'll be able to do the same with mental models.
I still remember the time I started learning about mental models…
I thought I understood them. I thought I was using them.
But I wasn't.
It wasn't until I started applying mental models to my life that I started to understand them.
You need to find a chance to apply mental models to real problems. You need a chance to make mistakes, and you need a chance to fix those mistakes.
Fall down, get up, try again.
What is your experience with learning and using mental models? 🙂
I will publish the best answers. Share your thoughts with the community!