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The Great Mental Models, Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology
by
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Hardcover, 397 pages
Published
March 27th 2020
by Latticework Publishing Inc.
(first published December 1st 2019)
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Start your review of The Great Mental Models, Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology
A good collection of the science frameworks applied to social science. For example a catalyst model in chemistry used to suggest the importance of learning and it ability to be a force multiplier. The book links velocity as speed and size in physics to Napoleon and his use in army strategy. Natural selection as evolution or in this narrative how it applies to to adaption and survival of language. Each chapter frames one science framework a metaphor or model to another more abstract social issue.
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Do it.read it. Love it.get it.go for it. Be it. See it.believe it.find it.make it.
An obscure review title for a well written, timeless book. My life is changing for the better using models thinking.
An obscure review title for a well written, timeless book. My life is changing for the better using models thinking.
I wish I was taught subjects like this at my university. For many of the topics, though, a personal experience might be in need. Thus, I'm humbled to learn them now, and in some cases even be able to associate from personal experience.
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This was a frustrating book to read. While the authors brought up some interesting principles/mental models, there was a lot of pseudoscience (like "It is probable that that people first discovered catalysis when alcohol was invented", or "Although the science continues to advance, we lack a comprehensive definition or how many catalysts actually work")
Moreover, they were limited in treating the interesting mental models they did bring up. As an example, Andy Grove and Naval Ravikant treat Lever ...more
Moreover, they were limited in treating the interesting mental models they did bring up. As an example, Andy Grove and Naval Ravikant treat Lever ...more
This book reads like a strongly simplified selection of some fundamental concepts in physics, chemistry and biology. They're supposed to be practical and applicable in various aspects in life, but it simply does not work for me.
First, it's not a science book, even a very simplified one. There is no system, criteria by which concepts are chosen and their explanation is also inconsistent in structure and details.
Second (and I had exactly same gripes with the first book in the series), the level of ...more
First, it's not a science book, even a very simplified one. There is no system, criteria by which concepts are chosen and their explanation is also inconsistent in structure and details.
Second (and I had exactly same gripes with the first book in the series), the level of ...more
For what it's worth, this book contains information worth chewing and digesting.
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The reason i am giving 4* ¬ 5* because most of the mental models have been covered in farnam street blog which i had been religiously following since 2018.
This book is good in a sense that it weaves a beautiful structure where that mental tools has been applied in past and where this tools can be followed in day to day sense.
The different stories revolving different mental from battle to discoveries to innovation to philosophy is really fascinating.
I have been reading books on mental tool fo ...more
This book is good in a sense that it weaves a beautiful structure where that mental tools has been applied in past and where this tools can be followed in day to day sense.
The different stories revolving different mental from battle to discoveries to innovation to philosophy is really fascinating.
I have been reading books on mental tool fo ...more
The more tools you have in your mental toolbox, the more likely you are to make better decisions.
This books covers relativity, reciprocity, thermodynamics, inertia, friction and viscosity, velocity, leverage, activation energy, catalysts, alloying, evolution, ecosystem, self-preservation, cooperation, hierarchical organisation, incentives and finally tendency to minimise energy output, all of which are interesting in their own domain and especially interesting when told as a real-life example of ...more
This books covers relativity, reciprocity, thermodynamics, inertia, friction and viscosity, velocity, leverage, activation energy, catalysts, alloying, evolution, ecosystem, self-preservation, cooperation, hierarchical organisation, incentives and finally tendency to minimise energy output, all of which are interesting in their own domain and especially interesting when told as a real-life example of ...more
Apr 05, 2021
Mike Scull
added it
Not really what I expected at all, but very nicely done. Good wisdom - hopefully I remember some when I need it!
Much of this book's appeal lies in the fact that a book on this topic ought to exist, and there was none before this came along. Anyone with a better than average understanding of the natural sciences - stuff that is taught in high school - would have an intuitive feel for these concepts. It is therefore, great that those concepts have been modelled by the author for use beyond their original discipline.
I would have happily given the book the full monty if it delved deeper. Many models were back ...more
I would have happily given the book the full monty if it delved deeper. Many models were back ...more
PHYSICS
1. Relativity
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
What you see is useful but limited. The less willing you are to accept and acknowledge limitations, the less useful your perspective.
Multiple perspectives are the reality of life.
!-When you see someone doing something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask yourself what the world would have to look like to you for those actions to make sense. Use thought exp ...more
1. Relativity
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
What you see is useful but limited. The less willing you are to accept and acknowledge limitations, the less useful your perspective.
Multiple perspectives are the reality of life.
!-When you see someone doing something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask yourself what the world would have to look like to you for those actions to make sense. Use thought exp ...more
Second part of the series on mental models, this one is much longer and in my opinion way too long. The book goes into even more length than part 1 trying to give real life examples connected to the mental models.
Some of them didn't really fit, while a few where quite interesting and others left me asking, so what?
Also a lot of it is just pretty obvious and not containing any valuable lesson for your life.
Valuable take aways however where:
1. Relativity and limited perspective
"You will always h ...more
Some of them didn't really fit, while a few where quite interesting and others left me asking, so what?
Also a lot of it is just pretty obvious and not containing any valuable lesson for your life.
Valuable take aways however where:
1. Relativity and limited perspective
"You will always h ...more
Honestly! I didn't fully read this one. After reading all of the last book, I found that the chapter conclusions were more than enough to give me the core idea. I still think there's way too much fluff in these books. Good idea, but a lot of unnecessary examples and over explanation going on.
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Gorgeous book that will help you apply mental models from the sciences.
An excellent application of scientific principles to thought patterns. This book is intriguing throughout. I say this being totally unbiased by my appearance in the acknowledgements.
My anchor for this book and review, was from Volume 1 in the series, which I thought to be a resourceful and worthwhile read.
Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and perhaps due to the science based focus, I found to be less engaging. The book was longer, and felt to be a longer duration to consume.
I do have an interest in Science, and while the correlations of the science headings to extract the learnings, this science aspect just didn't seem to resonate and constituted in a less engaging ...more
Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and perhaps due to the science based focus, I found to be less engaging. The book was longer, and felt to be a longer duration to consume.
I do have an interest in Science, and while the correlations of the science headings to extract the learnings, this science aspect just didn't seem to resonate and constituted in a less engaging ...more
This book takes some of the major scientific ideas of our day and then applies them in metaphorical ways to life and leadership. For example, inertia can be used to understand why it's hard to change habits and the second law of thermodynamics (everything slides to disorder/decay unless acted on by an outside energy source) can be used to show how we need to keep pouring new ideas and tools and people into our organizations to keep them healthy and strong.
It's well written and easy to read, espe ...more
It's well written and easy to read, espe ...more
My introduction to mental models has been through Shane’s works, and this book is just another step towards that goal. The first one in the series introduced me to number of new models altogether, this one takes concepts from known subjects (speed, velocity, alloys to name a few) and synthesises a new paradigm to watch the world through. To internalise these, one needs to devote time, and more importantly commitment, but once you get hooked, there’s no looking back. I found more analogies cited
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The first book is quite good, with Parrish introduced many useful mental models (my favorite would be The Map is Not The Territory). Unfortunately this book doesn’t live up the first volume. Many of the mental models seem forced.
Parrish derived the models from the nature around us because ‘the older the source of mental model, the more reliable’. Can’t argue much with that. He then built models based on physics, chemistry, and biology. Of all three. I think only the biology models that is more ...more
Parrish derived the models from the nature around us because ‘the older the source of mental model, the more reliable’. Can’t argue much with that. He then built models based on physics, chemistry, and biology. Of all three. I think only the biology models that is more ...more
I love Farnham street and the blogs and I liked this book and love the idea of it. The models and concepts are potent and great & I love multi-disciplinary application and studies in general. Sometimes I was inspired & thought about my own life relating to topics (Velocity, Inertia, Adaptation). And other times it felt like the structure was basic like in a high school chemistry book kind of way (with clear cut analogies to wars, inventors, everyday activities) - examples of things already known
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Despite having read the writings from Charlie Munger, I always struggled to see how knowing something about physics could really help in investment (or some other) thinking - unless of course it just so happened to be an engineering or technical business. But this volume, far more than the first one, really helped me see the application of these mental models to real life.
The stories and anecdotes linked to each model are fascinating and extremely broad. I’ve read about some of these theories b ...more
The stories and anecdotes linked to each model are fascinating and extremely broad. I’ve read about some of these theories b ...more
I read the first volume and loved it. I've been a fan of the Farnam Street blog for some time now and was really happy for this series to come out. At first, I thought this was going to be more "telling" and less "storytelling", given the subtitle. But the great thing about this book is that it uses the properties and principles of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology to tell historical and modern day lessons in a captivating way. Unfortunately, the audio version has a professional narrator so the li
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The Great Mental Models series contains concepts I have found fascinating. The second volume is all about science. The lessons in this book are better for conceptualizing how to use the subjects than any high school textbook can. The way they are detailed along with the real life examples make them so much easier to use rather than listening to my high school teachers lecture about a specific chapter in the given textbook. If I was a high school science teacher, I would use this as a guide in my
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This is not a book about mental models, in it’s lengthy entirety, this work describes fundamental concepts from physics, chemistry and biology. So if you didn’t attend high school and don’t know what Evolution or Velocity mean, then this book will probably help you out understanding this basic principles.
To add more, each concept forces an example/analogy from outside the hard sciences such as “how the tea is so popular worldwide” and makes it feel cramped just to fit the original concept, and w ...more
To add more, each concept forces an example/analogy from outside the hard sciences such as “how the tea is so popular worldwide” and makes it feel cramped just to fit the original concept, and w ...more
Wonderful read, as usually from Shane Parrish, on mental models. This is the 2nd volume in their work. While some of this is repeated from the great work Shane's team does on the Farnam Street website, there is some great stuff here. The writing is succinct but well written, and making it easy to follow and easy to learn from. I really enjoyed the models and examples here, plus some tips at the end on how to implement this. Great stuff. Keep up the good work Shane!
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Mildly interesting for the anecdotes, but the application of any of these hasn't really hit home. I see some of them in my day to day, but feel like I already have mental models (e.g., activation energy vs. critical mass, alloying vs. greater than the sum of their parts, niches vs. specialization vs. T's and I's). I'll try to keep the concepts in mind, but it definitely didn't hit home while reading.
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This is another great volume of mental models. This time, there are great models from various scientific disciplines, such as chemistry, physics, and biology that are applied to life. Even better, there are current/modern examples that help to tie everything together. This is definitely a great follow-up to the first volume and a must-read for anyone who wants to make better decisions and to think more rationally.
This was a hard to put down book and I was fortunate to find the time to read it cover to cover. As the author indicates, this is not for a one-time read, but to come back to from time to time to appreciate the context and examples. Many of the concepts would be covered with a K-12 or college education, but relating them to organizations and relationships was novel. Ended up learning more historical oddities than I knew before. Highly recommend this volume, can't wait for Volume #3.
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I really enjoyed this and am excited for volume 3 to come out.
I like the style of this and Robert Greene's books of incorporating historical examples to strengthen points (as I find my knowledge of history to be weak at best). I hope to find more similar authors.
Thanks for writing this book! ...more
I like the style of this and Robert Greene's books of incorporating historical examples to strengthen points (as I find my knowledge of history to be weak at best). I hope to find more similar authors.
Thanks for writing this book! ...more
For whatever reason, the idea of limiting reactants from high school chemistry class has been a "mental model" that I have applied to many other areas of life. I enjoyed sharing notes and getting some new ideas in these areas that I have such little experience in. I look forward to the volume that will cover math...
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Shane Parrish is the founder, curator and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street (www.fs.blog).
What started as a personal, anonymous blog where Shane could explore what others have discovered about decision making, purposeful living, and how the world works, quickly blossomed into one of the fastest-growing websites in the world.
With over 250,000 subscribers, consistently sold-out workshops and over ...more
What started as a personal, anonymous blog where Shane could explore what others have discovered about decision making, purposeful living, and how the world works, quickly blossomed into one of the fastest-growing websites in the world.
With over 250,000 subscribers, consistently sold-out workshops and over ...more
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