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thinking system

7 min read

definitions

Mental models
def: fundamental concepts and representations about how the world works
→ what to think = principles, concepts

Thinking tools
def: practical methods that can be applied to solve problems
→ how to think = processes, frameworks

Metacognition
def:

  • capacity to reflect on, evaluate and control cognitive processes such as decision-making, memory and perception.1
  • capacity to use knowledge of a task at hand, knowledge of learning strategies and knowledge of oneself to plan learning, monitor progress towards learning goal and then evaluate the outcome.2
  • process involved when learner plan, monitor, evaluate and make changes to their own learning behaviours.3
    • meta = about the thing itself
    • cognition = thinking process
    • metacognition = thinking about one’s thinking process

Two dimensions:

  • Metacognitive knowledge: learner’s knowledge of their own cognitive abilities (e.g. not good at remembering dates), the nature of particular tasks and different learning strategies including when to use them.
  • Metacognitive regulation: how learners monitor and control their cognitive processes.

Metacognitive frameworks
def: structures for thinking about how you think — planning, monitoring and evaluating your own cognitive processes
→ they help learn and problem-solve more effectively by making thinking visible and deliberate

The core metacognitive cycle:

Plan → Monitor → Evaluate

  • Plan: “what’s my goal? what strategy will i use?”
  • Monitor: “am i understanding this? should i adjust?”
  • Evaluate: “how did i do? what would i change next time?”

The classic metacognitive model:
→ “Flavell’s model”
There are three components you regulate:

  • Metacognitive knowledge: what you know about your own cognition capabilities
  • Metacognitive experiences: how do you feel during thinking
  • Metacognitive strategies: what actions you take to control thinking (e.g. self-quizzing, re-reading, etc.)

categories

some broad categories about “what kind of thinking?”:

  1. Metacognition: Thinking about thinking
  2. Analysis and Structuring: Breaking down problems
  3. Systems and Complexity: Understanding interconnections
  4. Decision and Prioritisation: Making choices
  5. Risk and Uncertainty: Managing unknowns
  6. Creativity and Ideation: Generating ideas
  7. Communication and Alignment: Sharing understanding

and more in detail:

  1. Metacognition: the “director” tools
  2. Analysis and Structuring: the “architect” tools
  3. Systems and Complexity: the “ecologist” tools
  4. Decision and Prioritisation: “the commander” tools
  5. Risk and Uncertainty: the “navigator” tools
  6. Creativity and Ideation: the “inventor“ tools
  7. Communication and Alignment: the “anthropologist” tools

list en vrac (>50+)

Abstraction Laddering

Activation Energy

Arbitrage

Attentional Bias

Butterfly Effect

Circle of Competence

Commitment and Consistency

Comparative Advantage

Compounding Effect

Concept Map

Connection Circles

Critical Mass

Cynefin Framework

Diversification

Economies of Scale

Efficient-Market Hypothesis

Eisenhower Matrix

def: decision-making tool which consists in a four-quadrant grid that can be used to prioritise tasks along 2 axes: urgency and importance.

  1. Important and urgent
  2. Important, but not urgent
  3. Urgent but not important
  4. Not urgent and not important

Which leads to these corresponding actions

  1. Do it immediately
  2. Decide, schedule a time to do it
  3. Delegate, assign to someone else
  4. Delete, get rid of the task

eisenhower matrix quadrants

Benefits:

  • + simplify and streamline to-do list
  • + improve productivity and focus on what matters more first

Energy Preservation

Equilibrium

Fear Setting

Feedback Loop

First Principles Thinking

def: practice of breaking down complex problems into their most basic components, then reasoning up from there
→ understand the basic principles behind something, get to the root of things first (basic individual parts)

  • analogy: to bake a cake, you need to start with the basic ingredients, then you can start experiment w/ combinations, proportions, recipes
  • core: “what is fundamentally true?” first, then build

Three main steps:

  1. break down problem into its individual parts
  2. understand how each part works
  3. experiment with different combinations, parameters to find a solution

Global vs Local Maxima

Hanlon’s Razor

Hierarchical Organization

Hyperbolic Discounting

Iceberg Model

Incentives

Inversion

Irreducibility

Ishikawa Diagram

Issue Trees

Jootsing

Ladder of Inference

Leverage

Multiplying by Zero

NASA Risk Matrix

Occam’s Razor

Opportunity Costs

Parkinson’s Law

Probabilistic Thinking

Regression to the Mean

Second-Level Thinking

def: thinking beyond the immediate, first-order consequences of a decision to consider the subsequent, longer-term and often unintended effects
→ immediate results <<< what could happen down the road?

  • analogy:
    • 1st level “watering the plants → it’ll grow”
    • vs. > level “watering the plants → possibly lead to overwatering → roots will rot → attract fungus”
  • core: “and then what?” again and again
  • remark: beware of your biases and assumptions

The main steps:

  1. Stop and think: when faced with a decision, stop and think,
    • what are the short-term (10min) vs. long-term (10years) consequences of each option?
    • what are the risks vs. rewards?
    • who are the stakeholders?
    • … and then what?
  2. Consider all potential options: weigh pros vs. cons (csqs, risks, rewards)
  3. Make a decision
  4. Evaluate decision: after making the decision, take a moment to evaluate
    • did you make the best decision possible?
    • are you happy with the results?
    • if not, why not? any unexpected consequences?

Self-Preservation

Six Thinking Hats

Supply and Demand

Surface Area

Systematic Inventive Thinking

Systems Thinking

The Map is not the Territory

Thought Experiment

Thought Experiment

Uncertainty Matrix

Velocity

deprecated

General Thinking Tools

  • The Map is not the Territory
  • Circle of Competence
  • First principles thinking
  • Thought experiment
  • Second-order thinking
  • Probabilistic thinking
  • Inversion
  • Occam’s Razor
  • Systems thinking
  • …

Critical Thinking Frameworks

  • SWOT: Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
  • Decision trees
  • Mind mapping

Activation Energy
Arbitrage
Attentional Bias
Butterfly Effect
Circle of Competence
Commitment and Cons…
Comparative Advantage
Compounding Effect
Critical Mass
Diversification
Economies of Scale
Efficient-Market Hyp…
Energy Preservation
Equilibrium
Feedback Loop
First Principles Thinking
Global and Local Maxima
Hanlon’s Razor
Hierarchical Organization
Hyperbolic Discounting
Incentives
Inversion
Irreducibility
Jootsing
Leverage
Multiplying by Zero
Occam’s Razor
Opportunity Costs
Parkinson’s Law
Probabilistic Thinking
Regression to the Mean
Second-Level Thinking
Self-Preservation
Supply and Demand
Surface Area
The Map is not the Ter…
Thought Experiment
Velocity

sources:

Footnotes

  1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/metacognition ↩

  2. https://tll.mit.edu/teaching-resources/how-people-learn/metacognition/ ↩

  3. https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/272307-metacognition.pdf ↩

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