Top Mental Models for Thinkers
Mental models are different ways of mapping or viewing a system or a problem. They are frameworks that help explain what’s going on, and predict what’s likely to happen next.
Model thinking is an excellent way of improving our cognition and decision making abilities. Thinking in models helps us understand how new concepts fit with older observations, and what theories and metaphors are likely to endure.
They are useful in strategy, decision-making, analysis, planning, and a broad range of applications in both our personal and professional lives. It’s a good investment to spend time learning models — which are most typically extensible outside their original field of interest.
Often more than one model can apply to a situation or problem. Models are useful for picturing the issue in a different way, through a different lens — and perhaps to see something before unseen. They can help us try out different scenarios with ideas or personas.
Top Models and Concepts
We all have learnings in our lives we consider more precious than others — explanations and predictions that endure and keep on giving, versus those that fade away. Our core models form the backbone of our thinking and decision-making throughout our lives; it’s our grab bag of problem solving tools — and we want to have a resilient Swiss Army Knife at the ready at all times. These mental models help us understand a complex world, and prepare for all the changes that are inevitably ahead.
This set of top models below is my personal “desert island” set of model thinking concepts. These are the ones I really wouldn’t want to be caught dead leaving the house without.
Once these are on lock, head over to the unabridged models section for more model thinking goodness!
I will continue to add to this list over time as well as fill in the number of holes that remain in the set. Learning about new mental models is one of my favorite activities — it’s the closest thing to a superpower I can think of.
| Term | Type | Topic | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80/20 rule | Model | Economics | Also known as a power law, or the Pareto Principle |
| absolute advantage | Term | Economics | The ability of a party to produce a product or service more efficiently than any of its competitors. |
| absolute value | Term | Math | The value of a function irrespective of its sign (positive or negative). Its distance from zero, expressed as a positive. |
| accessibility | Term | Psychology | How easy something is to call to mind |
| acquittal | Legal precedent | Law | A judgment of not guilty in a criminal trial |
| activation energy | Term | Science | A chemistry term that describes the minimum energy required for a chemical system to react; the amount of energy required to get two or more compounds to react. |
| adverse selection | Term | Economics | Insurance phenomenon in which buyers or sellers in a transaction can use insider knowledge to unfairly get a better advantage over the other party or parties |
| a fortiori | Logic | Logic | From the Latin, "from a stronger argument," the phrase refers to conclusions for which there is stronger evidence than a previously accepted one. |
| akrasia | Term | Psychology | A state of mind where someone acts against their own better judgment due to weakness of will. |
| alea iacta est | Metaphor | Metaphor | In Latin, "the die is cast" -- attributed to Julius Caesar as he crossed the river Rubicon, leading an attack on Rome: a metaphor for a point of no return. |
| allocation | Method | Economics | Distributing resources, assets, or funds amongs recipients. |
| "All the world's a stage“ | Metaphor | Arts | Shakespearean metaphor likening culture to a theatrical performance: "And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances ..." —William Shakespeare, As You Like It |
| Amara's Law | Theory | Science | We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. |
| annuity | Term | Economics | A series of regular payments at equal intervals. |
| antifragility | Model | Economics | Things that can benefit from disorder, and grow stronger amidst chaos. When something grows stronger under stress; when there is more upside to downside of experiencing a shock to the system. |
| antimatter | Theory | Science | Antimatter particles are the precise opposite charge and spin from their matter counterparts, but identical otherwise. |
| appreciation | Model | Economics | The tendency of an asset to appreciate, or grow, with value over time. |
| a priori | Logic | Philosophy | Information deduced from logical precedents versus empirical observation. |
| arbitrage | Model | Economics | A method of turning profit via simultaneous purchase and sale of the same assets in different markets, benefiting from the differences in listed price in various geographical regions. |
| archetypes | Symbol | Philosophy | An ideal type; a model after which others are fashioned. |
| arrow of time | Theory | Science | Theory of physics stating an asymmetry of time -- that time has a one-way direction in which the entropy of the universe is only increasing. Although human beings perceive the past as being different from the future -- and that we remember the past, but not the future -- intrinsically there is nothing in the structure of the universe that defines past from future. Time is instead an emergent feature. |
| artificia docuit fames | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | Latin saying meaning, "sophistication is born out of hunger" -- a metaphor for innovation and genius being awakened by challenge, difficulty, and constraints. |
| ASCII | Term | Technology | American Standard Code for Information Interchange: a standard character translation table used by computers to convert numerical representations into printable characters. |
| asking a fish about water | Metaphor | Metaphor | There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” |
| asset | Term | Economics | A valuable object or good. |
| astroturfing | Method | Politics | The deceptive political practice of paying operatives to pose as members of the public engaging in "grassroots protest" as a way of adding plausible deniability as well as amplification of their point of view. |
| asymmetric encryption | Term | Computer Science | Also known as public-key cryptography, asymmetric encryption encrypts and decrypts the data using two separate keys that are related mathematically (a public and a private key). |
| asymptote | Term | Math | The graph of a curve as it is approaching a numerical value or limit, but never quite reaching it. |
| autophagy | Experimental finding | Biology, Medicine | The body's way of cleaning out damaged cells and replace them with newer, healthier cells. Literally, "self-eating." |
| availability bias | Model | Psychology | Cognitive distortion arising from the unconscious preference for information that is recent rather than what is representative. |
| average | Method | Math | A measure of central tendency of a set of data, whether the mean, media, or mode. |
| balance sheet | Method | Economics | A financial document showing the book value of a company, i.e. how much it's worth. |
| balancing loop | Model | Systems theory | A balancing loop attempts to move a current state (the way things are) to a desired state (goal or objective) though an action (thing(s) done to reach the goal).The balancing loop is one of the two foundational structures of systems thinking, along with the Reinforcing Loop. A balancing loop is representative of any situation where there is a goal or an objective and action is taken to achieve that goal or objective. |
| Baldwin Effect | Model | Science | As organisms learn to shape their environment, they can alter the path of evolution. For example, with the advent of dairy farming, selection pressures began favoring lactose absorption genes in humans. |
| bank reserves | Term | Economics | Cash minimums banks must have on hand to meet regulatory requirements ensuring the financial system is equipped to handle periodic shocks in demand for withdrawals. |
| bank run | Term | Economics | Economic term for when a large group of bank depositors withdraw their money all at once -- once a common occurrence that rarely happens anymore in the modern world. |
| base conversion | Math | Math | The base is how many numbers there are in a number system; we use base 10 primarily, and computers use base 2, aka binary. Base conversion is the method of converting numbers from one base system to another. |
| Base Rate Fallacy | Model | Psychology | A type of fallacy in which people tend to ignore the general prevalence of something in favor of specific anecdotes. |
| base weighting | Math | Statistics | |
| Bayes' Theorem | Method | Math | A mathematical method of determining the updated probability of a certain event or case, given new information. |
| bend the knee | Metaphor | Social psychology | Give up one's own opinion and swear fealty to a higher authority. |
| beta | Method | Economics | In finance, a term that refers to investments tracking the broad market performance of an exchange or industry sector |
| The Big Bang | Model | Science | The massive explosion which spawned our entire universe, back at the beginning of time. |
| The Big Crunch | Model | Science | |
| binary numbers | Math | Math | |
| binomial distribution | Math | Statistics | |
| Binomial Theorem | Theory | Math | |
| black hole | Theory | Science | |
| Black-Scholes model | Model | Economics | |
| Black Swan | Model | Economics | A highly improbable and unexpected event -- which yet occurs with more frequency than one might generally assume. |
| blockchain | Term | Technology | The basis of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology is a kind of public ledger or shared database that records transactions transparently and out in the open, in a way that anyone can access or verify. |
| boiling frog | Metaphor | Philosophy | A metaphor for the common occurence of slow, gradual changes over time not being noticed, like the (contested) legend of a scienfitic experiment that boiling a frog alive by starting with tepid water and slowly turning up the temperature. |
| bond | Method | Economics | |
| Boyle's Law | Scientific Law | Science | A scientific law that describes the relationship between the pressure and the volume of a confined gas. |
| boundary object | Theory | Technology | Information science concept describing information used in different ways, by different communities, for collaborative work through scales. |
| bounded rationality | Experimental finding | Psychology | A central challenge to the c. 1776 ideas of Adam Smith regarding the Invisible Hand of markets, this 20th c. psychological theory posits that rather than making optimized rational decisions, at most times the average person is "satisficing" or making the most expedient choice under considerable constraints and lack of available information |
| bricolage | Method | Arts | Combination of many types and forms into one piece; a pastiche or mashup of style and cultural referents |
| broken windows theory | Theory | Law | |
| Butterfly Effect | Model | Science | |
| bystander effect | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| cadence | Term | Arts | |
| camel's nose | Metaphor | Philosophy | a metaphor describing how allowing a smaller innocuous act may lead to larger acts that are undesirable |
| capital gains | Term | Economics | Money that is earned as a result of a stock investment appreciating in value — the capital "gains in value" |
| capital requirements | Economics | Actual cash on hand for banks to theoretically offer at a given time, with the rest lended out as leverage | |
| carbon-14 | Scientific Law | Science | |
| carbon dating | Method | Science | A way to scientifically determine the age of an organic object by radioactive decay. |
| carpe diem | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | In Latin, "seize the day" -- a reference often used to motivate oneself and others to act boldly and live vigorously in the moment. |
| cartel | Economics | ||
| catalyst | Model | Science | |
| categorical data | Math | ||
| causa-sui project | Theory | Psychology | |
| cause and effect | Model | ||
| caveat emptor | Ancient Wisdom | Strategy | "Beware, the buyer" in Latin -- a reference to a warning about what one is getting into. |
| cellular automata | Math | ||
| Central Limit Theorem | Math | Statistics | In probability theory, the CLT establishes that independent random variables when measured will tend towards the normal distribution. |
| central tendency | Math | Statistics | A measure of the midpoint of a data set; includes mean, median, and mode. |
| ceteris paribus | Method | Economics | "All other things being equal"; holding the effects of other variables constant to determine the effects on a single variable of interest. |
| charge preservation | Science | ||
| charlatan | Psychology | one who aspires to wealth &/or fame through trickery and deception | |
| Chesterton's Fence | Model | Metaphor | |
| chilling effect | Term | History | The inhibition of one's legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by threat of legal sanction. |
| cognitive bias | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| collapse | Model | Systems theory | |
| comparative advantage | Economics | ||
| composite events | Statistics | in probability | |
| compound interest | Model | Economics | |
| conditionals | Math | ||
| Condorcet Jury Theorem | Math | Statistics | |
| confidence interval | Statistics | the range of values over which a predicted outcome may lie; the amount of certainty one has about the predicted value falling within the estimated range | |
| confirmation bias | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| conflation | Psychology | ||
| consent of the governed | Philosophy | Politics | Concept of political philosophy in which a government's legitimacy and right to use state power is only justified if consented to by the people over whom said power is wielded. |
| consequentialism | Philosophy | ||
| conservation of energy | Scientific Law | Chemistry | In a closed system, total energy remains constant. |
| conservation of mass | Scientific Law | Physics | In a closed system, mass remains constant. |
| conservation of momentum | Scientific Law | Physics | In a closed system, momentum remains constant. |
| constraints | Math | ||
| Consumer Sentiment Index | Economics | ||
| continuous vs. discrete variables | Statistics | ||
| Copernican theory of the solar system | Scientific Law | Science | |
| correlation | Statistics | ||
| correlation coefficient | Statistics | ||
| correlation is not causation | Scientific Law | Statistics | |
| cosine | Math | Math | |
| counterfactual | |||
| countervailing power | Economics | Economist John Kenneth Galbraith's concept for how collective worker power is needed to balance against growing corporatism in the economy. | |
| creative destruction | Model | Economics | Economist Joseph Shumpeter's idea for how the business cycle works: by innovation disrupting established processes and industries and forcing change into markets, often destructively and swiftly. |
| credo quia absurdum | "I believe because it is absurd" — Tertullian's defense of belief in the miracles attributed to Christ | ||
| critical mass | Science | ||
| crossing the Rubicon | Metaphor | History | Making a decision from which there is no turning back; a reference to Julius Caesar's overthrow of the Roman republic to found the Roman Empire in 49 BCE. |
| cross-sectional data | Math | ||
| crowdfunding | Economics | ||
| crowdsourcing | Method | Systems theory | |
| cryptocurrency | Economics | ||
| Dark Matter | Theory | Science | |
| dead hand of the past | Philosophy | History | Problem inherent in constitutional political philosophy, where eventually a people becomes ruled by "masters" no longer alive, who rule by "fiat" via a document, from beyond the grave (Thomas Jefferson's concept) |
| death spiral | |||
| decision theory | Systems theory | ||
| decision tree | Method | Computer Science | |
| de minimis | Legal precedent | Law | |
| depreciation | Method | Economics | |
| derivatives | Math | ||
| diminshing marginal utility (DMU) | Model | Economics | |
| directory structure | Computers | ||
| dispersion | Math | Statistics | the amount of variation within a set of data; how spread out the data points are from each other |
| distributions | Math | Statistics | |
| divergent thinking | Psychology | ||
| diversity | Experimental finding | Science | |
| Diversity Prediction Theorem | |||
| dividend payments | Method | Economics | Periodic, usually quarterly, payouts to stockholders of the company when posting profits. Along with capital gains, one of the 2 primary reasons to invest in stocks. |
| Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 | Legal precedent | Economics | definitive financial regulation of the financial industry following the 2007-8 financial crisis |
| domain dependence | |||
| Doppler Effect | Scientific Law | Physics | |
| double helix | |||
| doxa | Social psychology | common belief or opinion | |
| Drake Equation | Model | Science | Estimation of the number of technological civilizations that might exist in the universe. |
| dualism | Philosophy | ||
| Dunbar number | Theory | Psychology | |
| Dunning-Kruger Effect | Experimental finding | Psychology | A cognitive bias in which people mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as higher than it actually is, because they cannot recognize their incompetence in comparison to others. |
| Duverger's Law | Model | Politics | Holds that plurality-rule elections within single member districts — such as the structure found in the U.S. — tend to favor two-party systems |
| Easterlin paradox | Experimental finding | Economics | Beyond a certain point, countries don't get happier as they get richer. |
| economies of scale | Economics | ||
| edge case | Metaphor | Science | |
| elasticity; price elasticity | Model | Economics | The ability of pricing mechanisms to respond quickly or less quickly to changes in prevailing conditions. |
| elasticity of demand | Model | Economics | |
| elasticity of supply | Model | Economics | |
| electromagnetic spectrum | Scientific Law | Science | |
| electron cloud | Model | Science | Refers to the true nature of an electron's existence around an atom, wherein its location in space is not a definite point, but a fuzzy region of probable occurence. |
| elephants and flies | Metaphor | Economics | Sales concept to quickly segment leads into size buckets, from elephants > deers > rabbits > mice > flies. |
| elephant and rider | Model | Psychology | Psychological idea about how our unconscious and semi-conscious desires dominate us, but can be directed by reason (Jonathan Haidt et al) |
| embargo | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| Emperor's New Clothes | Metaphor | Government | |
| encryption | Math | ||
| ensemble learning | Method | Technology | |
| entropy | Scientific Law | Science | The disorder of a system increases over time. |
| epistemology | Philosophy | ||
| e pluribus unum | Symbol | Politics | Latin: "one out of many" — one of several phrases on the American dollar bill, it refers to the unity of the nation as made up of its many peoples and as such, signifies the republic. |
| equality under law | Legal precedent | Politics | An ancient principle of vital importance to almost every constitution in the world, stating that all people should be treated equally in the eyes of the law, and that all individuals are subject to the same set of laws |
| equilibrium | Science | A resting condition all systems seek, in which all competing inflows and outflows are in balance. | |
| equity | Economics | ||
| equity crowdfunding | Economics | ||
| error-embracing | Psychology | ||
| event horizon | Scientific Law | Physics | A boundary beyond which events cannot affect on observer, such as the edge of a black hole. |
| evolution | Scientific Law | Science | |
| exception handling | Method | Computer Science | The process of responding to the occurrence of exceptions -- unexpected conditions that throw the application into an error state and must be resolved before continuing. |
| exchange rates | Economics | The value of one country's currency as measured against another | |
| existentialism | Philosophy | ||
| exit strategy | Method | Economics | |
| externalities | Economics | ||
| extrapolation | Statistics | ||
| factorial | Math | ||
| factum tacendo, crimen facias acrius | Philosophy | He who does not stop a crime is an accomplice. | |
| fact /value problem | Philosophy | ||
| fake news | Media | ||
| false negatives | Logic | Science | |
| false positives | Logic | Science | |
| false consensus effect | Experimental finding | Social psychology | |
| falsifiability | Logic | Science | Ability to be proven untrue; a requirement for a theory to be called scientific. |
| Feynman Technique | Method | Science | A method of learning and remembering difficult concepts by simplifying them until you can explain it to a new student or layperson who knows nothing about that concept. |
| fiat money | Economics | ||
| fiduciary duty | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| fifth column | Model | Politics | A group who unites in secret to undermine a larger group from within. |
| file system | Metaphor | Computer Science | |
| filter bubble | Metaphor | Social psychology | |
| first mover advantage | Experimental finding | Strategy | |
| first principles | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | |
| fishing expedition | Metaphor | ||
| fitness function | Term | Science | In AI, refers to a set of selection criteria applied to a set of potential solutions to a problem to allow only the better candidates to survive to the next generation. |
| flâneur | Term | Arts | |
| force multiplier | Model | Science | |
| fractals | Math | Computer Science | |
| fractional lending | Method | Economics | Fractional reserve banking is the traditional way of doing business, in which banks loan out multiples of the assets they actually have on hand. This falls apart if there is ever a run on the bank, when every client demands their money back at the same time. |
| fractions | Term | Math | |
| fragility | Philosophy | ||
| framing | Psychology | ||
| free trade | Method | Economics | |
| free will | Philosophy | Philosophy | |
| freshwater vs. saltwater economists | Economics | ||
| Friend of the Court filing | Law | ||
| FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) | Social psychology | ||
| fundamental attribution error | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| future value | Economics | ||
| gain | Term | Arts | In audio recording, a control that allows more or less of the source sound into the channel being recorded. |
| game theory | Math | ||
| Gates' Law | Theory | Philosophy | The idea that software development speed halves every 18 months, negating the acceleratory effects of Moore's Law and preventing computing from leaping greatly forward. |
| Gaussian distribution | Term | Statistics | the Normal distribution |
| GDP (Gross Domestic Product) | Model | Economics | The sum of all public and private goods produced within a given period; a measure of a country's economic health. |
| general relativity | Theory | Science | |
| general will | Model | Government | |
| generalists and specialists | Philosophy | ||
| genetic algorithms | Science | An approach to AI based on evolutionary models, in which multiple candidate solutions to a problem are generated randomly by mutation and recombination, then iterated over thousands of generations through fitness functions to weed out the best of each generation. | |
| germ theory of disease | Scientific Law | ||
| Gettier problem | Philosophy | ||
| gilding the lilly | Metaphor | Arts | Speaking so floridly of a subject that one actually tarnishes its natural beauty. |
| GOFAI | Technology | "Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence" — reference to the style and general algorithmic approach of early artificial intelligence work, which fell out of popularity over the decades in favor of more organic neural net and evolutionary approaches. | |
| Golden calf | |||
| Golden Mean | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | Aristotelian theory of an ideal balance point between the many extremes we face in life; he advocated harmony between the various spheres of life for an experience of happiness. |
| Golden Rule | Ancient Wisdom | Culture | "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you" is the essence of this ancient wisdom, often used as a shorthand version of Jesus's core teaching. |
| Goldilocks Zone | Model | ||
| gold standard | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| gravity | Scientific Law | Science | |
| gravity waves | Physics | ||
| habeas corpus | Legal precedent | Law | |
| habitus | Theory | Social psychology | |
| Hanlon's Razor | Model | Philosophy | never attribute to malice what is adequately described by carelessness |
| hard determinism | Philosophy | ||
| harmonics | Arts | ||
| hearts and minds | Politics | ||
| hedge funds | Economics | ||
| hedonism | Philosophy | Philosophy | |
| Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle | Theory | Science | |
| hexadecimal numbers | Term | Math | base 6 |
| heuristics | Model | Psychology | Mental shortcuts that we do as a matter of routine, especially when we're stressed or under other types of cognitive constraints. |
| hormesis | Science | When a small dose of a toxic substance is actually beneficial to the living thing that ingests it | |
| hydra | Metaphor | ||
| iatrogenics | Health | harm done by the healer | |
| ice core dating | Method | Science | |
| id, ego, superego | Model | Psychology | Freud's psychological model of the conscious and unconscious mind. |
| implicit cost | Economics | ||
| Imposter Syndrome | Model | Psychology | A psychological pattern in which one doubts their own accomplishments and has a generalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. |
| index number; indexing | Statistics | ||
| inferior goods | Economics | ||
| inflation | Model | Economics | |
| inflection point | Math | The point of a curve at which a change in the direction of the curve occurs. | |
| intellectual property | Legal precedent | Economics | IP |
| interest | Model | Economics | |
| interest rate | Economics | ||
| internal rate of return (IRR) | Economics | ||
| Internet of Things (IoT) | Term | Technology | |
| intersection | Math | ||
| interventionism | Social psychology | ||
| Invisible Hand | Theory | Economics | |
| IP addresses | Term | Technology | |
| iron law of oligarchy | Theory | Politics | Political theory positing that no matter how democratic a group may start out, over time it will develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a small handful. |
| It from Bit | Theory | Physics | John Wheeler's theory about the fundamental informational nature of the universe |
| Keynesian economics | Theory | Economics | |
| Keynesian Put | Model | Economics | |
| keystone | |||
| Kronos Effect | Model | Economics | the tendency of a successful corporation to seek to acquire and/or drive its upstart competitors out of business |
| Laffer Curve | Theory | Economics | |
| law of excluded middle | |||
| Law of Large Numbers | Scientific Law | Math | As the number of coin tosses approaches infinity, the number of heads encountered will converge on 0.5; helpful in calculations of probability. |
| least-barricaded gate | Metaphor | Politics | Trotsky's metaphor of how social revolutions can take hold more easily in already weakened societies. |
| lecturing birds how to fly | Metaphor | Metaphor | |
| length contraction | Model | Physics | |
| less is more | Philosophy | Metaphor | |
| L'etat c'est moi | Philosophy | Politics | "I am the state“ |
| leverage | Economics | ||
| lifeboat ethics | Philosophy | Philosophy | |
| light-weight process | Computer Science | ||
| limit of a function | Term | Math | if the graph of an equation seems to approach a numerical value but never quite reaches it, we say that number is the limit of the function (approaching from the negative or positive direction; sometimes directionality is important) |
| limiting factor | Model | Systems Theory | |
| linear regression | Method | Math | |
| liquidity | Economics | ||
| local min | Model | Systems Theory | idea that to grow out of a stasis or plateau, you likely have to endure a period of "setback" that is a lower dip or minimum value from where you are now, but is what's required to get over the activation energy to reach the next level |
| locus of control | |||
| logarithm | Math | ||
| logical fallacies | Philosophy | ||
| long tail | Model | Math | In a power law distribution (of population, ages, items, etc.), the region of the graph that tapers off quickly after the initial segment of high data points |
| loss aversion | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| Lost Einsteins | Theory | Culture | http://doctorparadox.net/models/lost-einsteins/ |
| loyalists and mercenaries | Metaphor | Systems Theory | |
| maker's time and manager's time | Model | Systems Theory | |
| M1 | Economics | ||
| M2 | Economics | ||
| mandala | Ancient Wisdom | Religion | Introcate and elaborate patterns created with colored sand by Buddhist monks, who blow away their creations at the end to signify their celebration of impermanence. |
| Manichaean | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | a narrowly-defined dualistic worldview of good against evil |
| man on horseback | Metaphor | Synonym for a demagogue. Comes from French general Georges Ernest Boulanger, and refers to a military leader who presents himself as the savior of the country during a crisis and either assumes or threatens to assume dictatorial powers. | |
| map is not the territory | Metaphor | Metaphor | A phrase reminding us that our mental picture of a thing is not the same as the actual thing itself |
| margin of error | Math | Statistics | How much uncertainty there is in the results; a percentage the estimate may be bounded by. |
| marginal benefit | Economics | ||
| marginal cost | Economics | ||
| marginal returns | Economics | ||
| marginal utility | Economics | ||
| market share | Economics | ||
| Markov chain | Term | Math | |
| Maslow's Hierarchy of needs | Model | Psychology | |
| mean | Math | Statistics | The average value of the numbers in a data set; take the sum of all values and divide by the total number of values in the set. |
| median | Math | Statistics | Like mean, another way to describe the central tendency of a data set. |
| Median Voter Theorem | Theory | Politics | |
| megalopsychon | Philosophy | Philosophy | Concept in Aristotelian ethics of living with grandeur and taking risks with dignity; being nonsmall |
| mens rea | Legal precedent | Law | "guilty mind" — establishing the intent of a perp can help to establish criminal liability |
| mercantilism | Theory | Economics | |
| meritocracy | Model | Systems Theory | |
| metaphysics | Philosophy | Philosophy | |
| mirror neurons | Experimental finding | Science | |
| mode | Math | Statistics | The frequency with which each data point exists in the set. |
| monopoly | Model | Economics | Market condition in which there exists only one seller of a resource. |
| monopsony | Model | Economics | Market condition in which there exists only one buyer of a resource. |
| Moore's Law | Theory | Technology | Named after Gordon Moore, the model predicts the doubling of transistors on a circuit of equivalent size every 18 months to 2 years. This has many consequences for both technology and economics, including the predictable drop in price of generating the same amount of computing power each period. |
| moral hazard | Model | Economics | when one party takes on additional risk, knowing that other parties will bear the brunt of the risk in event of a loss |
| Moravec's Paradox | |||
| MVP (minimum viable product) | Term | Economics | |
| naive cynicism | Psychology | State of mind in which people believe others to have more egocentric bias than is warranted or is actually the case. | |
| Narcissus & Echo | Ancient Wisdom | Metaphor | |
| Nash Equilibrium | Theory | Math | |
| nasty, brutish, and short | Theory | Philosophy | |
| natural laws | Science | ||
| natural selection | Scientific Law | Science | |
| necessity is the mother of invention | Common Wisdom | Culture | |
| negative externalities | Model | Economics | |
| negative interest rates | Method | Economics | |
| neomania | Experimental finding | Social psychology | love of the modern for its own sake |
| neural net | Term | Technology | |
| net present value (NPV) | Model | Economics | |
| neuroplasticity | Experimental finding | Science | |
| Newton's first law | Scientific Law | Science | An object in motion will tend to stay in motion, unless acted upon by a force. |
| Newton's second law | Scientific Law | Science | F = ma, or an object of mass m feeling a force F will tend to accelerate by an amount a. |
| Newton's third law | Scientific Law | Science | When 2 objects interact, they each apply force on the other in equal amounts magnitude, in the opposite direction. |
| nodes | Term | Math | |
| noosphere | Thought Experiment | Data science | Sphere of human thought — all interacting minds on earth. An early 1900s concept from Teilhard de Chardin |
| nominal figures | Economics | ||
| nonlinearity | Math | ||
| Normal distribution | Scientific Law | Math | |
| normal goods | Economics | ||
| normalized weighted average | Statistics | ||
| normative and descriptive | Philosophy | ||
| noumena | Philosophy | ||
| novus ordo seclorum | Symbol | Government | A new order for the ages; Latin phrase seen on the American dollar bill. |
| null hypothesis | Method | Science | |
| observer effect | Experimental finding | Science | |
| Occam's Razor | Theory | Philosophy | A philosophical rule of thumb that favors the simplest explanation. Also known as the "law of parsimony." |
| octal numbers | Math | Computer Science | base 8 |
| oligopoly | Term | Economics | |
| omphalos | Politics | ||
| opportunity cost | Model | Economics | What you miss out on by using a resource in a certain way -- what you would have done with the resource otherwise; what alternative use you would have put it to. |
| options | Economics | ||
| orders of magnitude | Scientific Law | Math | |
| ordinally ranked data | Statistics | ||
| organizational debt | Economics | ||
| oscillations | Science | ||
| out-group bias | Experimental finding | Social psychology | |
| outlier | Model | Math | Data points that fall well outside of the normal distribution or expected distribution of a data set. |
| paradox | Model | Logic | A self-contradicting statement or logically impossible event. |
| paragon | Model | Culture | A standard against which something can be judged — an exemplar example of a thing |
| Pareto Principle | Experimental finding | Economics | Another term for the 80/20 Rule |
| path dependent | Math | Computer Science | |
| Pavlovian response | Experimental finding | Science | |
| pax Romana | Legal precedent | History | |
| pearls before swine | Metaphor | Culture | The sense of wasting one's efforts for people who don't really appreciate them. |
| P/E Ratio | Method | Economics | Price to earnings ratio: standard measure of relative stock performance |
| permutations | Math | Computer Science | |
| Peter Principle | Theory | Systems Theory | Theory that individuals within corporate and other organizational hierarchies will rise to the highest level at which they become incompetent in their job duties. |
| phase shift | Scientific Law | Science | The ability of matter to change phases, most famously water from liquid to ice to vapor and back again. |
| philosopher kings | Ancient Wisdom | ||
| Philosopher's Stone | Unsolved Mystery | ||
| phonemes | Experimental finding | ||
| plant a seed | Metaphor | ||
| Platonic forms | Model | ||
| Platonicity | Philosophy | adherence to crisp abstract theory & forms that blind us to the mess of actual reality | |
| Plato's Cave | Model | Philosophy | Allegory in Plato's Republic about a cave dweller whose only picture of reality is the shadow on the cave wall thrown by the fire. |
| pluralism | Government | ||
| point of no return | Metaphor | Culture | |
| polling | Method | Statistics | |
| Pollyanna Principle | Model | Psychology | The tendency for people to remember pleasant events more accurately than unpleasant ones. |
| populism | Government | ||
| positron | Scientific Law | Physics | an antimatter electron |
| Potemkin Village Effect | Model | Systems Theory | Tendency of systems to create the appearance of functioning normally — to appease the operators who wish it so — even when they are not. |
| precision | Math | ||
| present value | Economics | The expected current value of an income stream. | |
| price ceiling | Economics | ||
| price floor | Economics | ||
| prima facie | |||
| principle of indifference | Statistics | In probability, when there is no basis to choose some outcomes as more likely than others, they are given equal weight (1/2 chance of a particular side of a coin, 1/52 to get a particular card from a deck, etc.). | |
| Prisoner's Dilemma | Thought Experiment | Math | |
| private equity (PE) | Method | Economics | |
| probability | Math | ||
| probability distribution | Math | Statistics | |
| Procrustean bed | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | Synonymous with ruthlessly enforcing conformity, the phrase comes from a Greek tale of extreme "form fitting" on the part of Poseidon's son Procrustes, a robber who is said to have attacked victims by cutting off men's legs or stretching them on racks accordingly to fit an iron bed size. |
| profit | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| propaganda | Method | Social psychology | originally, a way to "propagate" any idea; used by both sides in WWI, it thereafter took on a sinister connotation when American & British citizens felt hoodwinked by their govt's use of it |
| proper frame | Physics | in physics, the frame of reference that accelerates with you and determines your age | |
| proportionality | Model | Math | |
| prospect theory | Psychology | ||
| proximate cause | Logic | ||
| proxy war | Term | Politics | |
| pseudoscience | Method | Culture | |
| PTSD | Psychology | ||
| punctuated equilibrium | Model | Science | |
| putting legs on a snake | Metaphor | ||
| Pygmalian Effect | Social psychology | ||
| Pyrrhic victory | Metaphor | History | A victory in which the costs of winning far outweigh the rewards. |
| quantum computing | Method | Computer Science | |
| quantum entanglement | Theory | Physics | |
| quantum physics | Science | ||
| qubit | Science | ||
| quid pro quo | Legal precedent | Law | |
| quota | |||
| r > q | Model | Economics | Thomas Piketty's elegant demonstration of the rise of inequality |
| random walks | Math | ||
| range | Statistics | In a set of numbers, the difference between the highest value and the lowest value in the data set. | |
| rara avis | Ancient Wisdom | Culture | "Rare bird" in Latin; similar to an outlier. Someone who stands out. |
| rate of return | Economics | ||
| Reagonomics | Economics | ||
| realism | Philosophy | ||
| reality testing | Model | Psychology | Discerning the difference between inner and outer, and seeing events as they really are, and not just what we want them to be. |
| received wisdom | Ancient Wisdom | Religion | |
| recursion | Method | Math | |
| red shift | Scientific Law | Science | |
| reductio ad absurdo | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | Collapsing things too far, in a way that destroys real significance. |
| reductio ad finem | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | To analyze to the end — break the concept down into its conponent parts. |
| redundancy | Method | Systems Theory | Having multiple pathways within a system to accomplish the same task or achieve the same objective. |
| reference frame | Physics | A frame that does not accelerate; also known as a Lorentz frame. | |
| regnat populus | |||
| regression analysis | Method | Statistics | |
| reincarnation | Unsolved Mystery | Religion | |
| reinforcing loop | Systems theory | ||
| relativity | Theory | Physics | Einstein's central insight that the experience or perceived passage of time depends greatly on the conditions of the observer, particularly with respect to velocity and gravity |
| resilience | Model | Systems Theory | Ability to bounce back into shape after having been pressed or stretched; elasticity. The ability to recover quickly. |
| respice finem | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | "Consider that you will die" — i.e. live life as you would in order to be proud of it by the time it's over. |
| res publica | Ancient Wisdom | Government | pertaining to the state |
| retrodiction | |||
| revenue | Economics | ||
| ripple effect | Experimental finding | Science | |
| risk | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| risk-weighted assets (RWAs) | Economics | ||
| root cause | Philosophy | ||
| Rosetta Stone | Experimental finding | History | Metaphorically, a key to unlocking the secrets of a given thing. |
| rounding | Method | Math | |
| rounding error | Math | ||
| rule of law | Legal precedent | Philosophy | |
| run on the bank | |||
| sampling | Method | Statistics | |
| samsara | Religion | ||
| scarcity | Economics | ||
| Schelling's Tipping Model | |||
| Schrödinger's Cat | Theory | Physics | |
| search intent | Term | Media | |
| second-order thinking | |||
| selection bias | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| self-governance | Philosophy | ||
| set theory | Math | ||
| ship of Theseus | Ancient Wisdom | Metaphor | |
| SIFI | Economics | systemically important financial institution; post-2008 financial crisis designation for banks deemed "too big to fail" (currently, firms holding more than $50b in assets) | |
| sigma | Statistics | standard deviation, named for the Greek letter denoting the statistical term | |
| signal path | Physics | ||
| significant figures | Math | aka "sig figs" | |
| simulation | Philosophy | ||
| sine | Math | Physics | |
| sine wave | Math | Physics | |
| Single point of failure (SPoF) | Term | Computer Science | A part of a system that, when it fails, brings down the entire rest of the system or stops it from working properly |
| singularity | Theory | Science | A black hole. |
| SIR model | Model | Science | contagious disease modelling based on possible patient states (susceptible, infected, recovered) |
| site navigation | Method | Computer Science | |
| six degrees of separation | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| six sigma | Method | Strategy | Motorola-originated concept of ensuring quality control to a very fine point, by ensuring that parts or other production outputs are manufactured to be within a certain quality range up to 6 times the standard deviation. |
| situational preparedness | Method | Strategy | |
| skew | Math | Statistics | |
| skin in the game | Ancient Wisdom | Economics | When someone has a stake in the outcome, they are more likely to keep their word in assist its fruition. |
| slope of a line | Math | Statistics | |
| social contract | Legal precedent | Philosophy | Profoundly impactful document in political philosophy from Jean Jacques Rousseau in 18th c. France, refuting the rights of monarchs to rule the people |
| Socratic method | Method | Philosophy | Technique of instruction or conversation where the teacher or moderator proceeds by asking the student or pupil a serious of questions, enticing her or him to come up with their own answers to the issues related to the subject at hand. |
| solipsism | |||
| sorting | Math | ||
| special relativity | Scientific Law | Science | |
| speech act theory | Theory | Philosophy | British philosopher J.L.Austin's concept that all uses of speech carry a performative aspect. |
| speed of light (c) | Scientific Law | Science | approx. 300 million meters per second |
| spread | Statistics | ||
| squaring the circle | Unsolved Mystery | A notorious philosophical problem first posed by Plato, the phrase has come to be used to allude to the grandiosity and infeasibility of someone's plans. | |
| standard deviation | Math | Statistics | |
| standing waves | Term | ||
| stare decisis | Legal precedent | Law | "It has been decided" — terminology used by a judge or court to indicate that the matter before them has already been decided by a previous ruling. |
| state of nature | Thought Experiment | Philosophy | |
| status quo | Term | Culture | The way things currently are. |
| stochastic terrorism | Term | Social psychology | |
| stocks and flows | Model | Systems Theory | |
| Stoicism | Ancient Wisdom | Philosophy | |
| Streisand Effect | Metaphor | Social psychology | When the act of attempting to hide information only makes it more prominently spread, especially via the Internet. |
| strict father morality | George Lakoff's terminology to describe the conservative worldview. | ||
| strict liability | Law | Crimes which have no mens rea requirement, such as rear-ending of another vehicle (where it is always the rear-enders' fault no matter what the circumstances. | |
| subsidy | Economics | ||
| success to the successful | Systems theory | A reinforcing loop within complex system — especially economies — wherein the spoils of victory include the means to alter the rules of the game further in the favor of the previous winners. | |
| summum malum | Ancient Wisdom | Politics | ultimate evil — some posit cruelty as this ultimate evil |
| supply and demand | Model | Economics | |
| supply chain | Term | Economics | |
| sword of Damocles | Ancient Wisdom | Metaphor | |
| symmetric encryption | Term | ||
| tabula rasa | Ancient Wisdom | Metaphor | Blank slate |
| tachyon | Experimental finding | Science | hypothetical particle that travels faster than the speed of light |
| tangent | Method | Math | |
| tariff | Legal precedent | Economics | |
| tempus edax rerum | Ancient Wisdom | Arts | "Time devours everything." — Ovid |
| tempus fugit | Ancient Wisdom | Time flies | |
| tempus neminem manet | Ancient Wisdom | time waits for no man | |
| Third Story | Thought Experiment | Philosophy | the story an impartial third-party observer might tell; a version of events any unbiased person could agree on |
| Thucydides Trap | |||
| tilting at windmills | Metaphor | Arts | A reference to the novel Don Quixote, denoting the ongoing pursuit of useless attacks against an implacable enemy. Ineffectual activity undertaken strenuously and loudly. |
| time dilation | Thought Experiment | Science | |
| time series data | Method | Statistics | A collection of measurements taken over time that create a graph when plotted. |
| time value of money | Theory | Economics | |
| tipping point | Model | Systems Theory | |
| Tit-for-Tat | Method | Strategy | |
| too many cooks in the kitchen | Metaphor | Culture | A metaphor connoting that too many people are currently involved in the decision-making process. |
| touchstone | Metaphor | Myth/Metaphor | A black stone once used to judge the purity of gold or silver — now signifying a standard against which something should be judged. |
| Tower of Babel | Metaphor | Religion | A tale in the book of Genesis in the Bible that purports to explain the origins of different languages, via narrative about God confounding the speech of humans trying to build a tower to reach Him. |
| trade-offs | Model | Economics | |
| tragedy of the commons | Experimental finding | Economics | An economic term for a situation in which unfettered access to a resource can lead to resource depletion through uncoordinated behavior -- a classic example is overfishing. A commonly-pooled (aka public) resource is overconsumed, but underinvested in. |
| transitivity | Term | Math | |
| trickle down economics | Method | Economics | Right-wing economics, also known as Reaganomics, supply side economics, fiscal conservatism, tax cut policy, and austerity. |
| trolly problem | Thought Experiment | Philosophy | |
| turtles all the way down | Theory | Philosophy | |
| twin paradox | Thought Experiment | Science | |
| tyranny of choice | Experimental finding | Systems Theory | The paradoxical effect that having too many options to choose from actually decreases the likelihoof of being able to reach a decision at all. |
| Unicode | Term | Computers | |
| union | Term | Math | In set theory, a union of sets is a set which consists of all the members of all the sets. |
| universal law | Philosophy | Philosophy | |
| usury | Term | Economics | The act of charging interest on borrowed money; for thousands of years there have been religous proscriptions against lending money with interest in various societies. |
| utility | Theory | Philosophy | |
| variance | Math | Statistics | The amount of variation within a data set. |
| Veil of Ignorance | Model | Philosophy | Philosopher John Rawls' model for making better ethical decisions, in which the decider chooses a course of action based on the predicate that s/he will not know which of the groups or persons affected by the decision they personally would be. This method creates natural incentives to find the fairest outcome for all groups, since the decider doesn't know which group they will "end up in" on the other side of the decision. |
| Venn Diagram | Model | Math | |
| via negativa | Method | Philosophy | An indirect description of a thing by describing what that thing is not. |
| Volcker rule | Legal precedent | Economics | Financial rule preventing consumer lending banks from speculative trading in securities for their own profit. |
| vulnerability | Experimental finding | Psychology | |
| wave function | Scientific Law | Science | |
| wave-particle duality | Experimental finding | Science | |
| wheel of life | Symbol | Religion | |
| when life gives you lemons | Metaphor | Philosophy | You try to make lemonade! Another way of saying, "let's try and make the best of this unfortunate situation." |
| winner-take-all market | Economics | ||
| wisdom of crowds | Model | Social psychology | Derived from the Diversity Prediction Theorem: the average prediction of a group of individuals will be more accurate than the prediction of one average member. |
| wolves and sheep | Metaphor | Philosophy | |
| wormhole | Theory | Physics | A sort of tunnel formed on the surface of a black hole that may connect two different regions of space |
| worst case scenario | Model | Systems Theory | |
| zero sum game | Model | Math | |
| z score | Term | Statistics |
