SUPER THINKING

We're often faced with two opposing forces: We need to understand complicated ideas quickly, but the rate at which information comes at us makes that difficult. With the help of a mental model - a framework that helps us interpret information and the relationship between things - we can learn to think faster, overcome biases, and make smarter decisions.

About 15 years ago, entrepreneur Gabriel Weinberg came across mental modelsframeworks that help us better interpret information - and started using them to improve his thinking in every area of his life. Since then, he and his wife, MIT-trained PhD Lauren McCann, have been developing a collection of the most helpful mental models for those of us who don't want to wade through dense books on psychology, physics, or economics.

There are thousands of mental models, and every discipline has its own set. But you only need a handful to vastly improve your day-to-day decision making, problem solving, and truth seeking. As famed Berkshire Hathaway investor Charlie Munger once said, "80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly-wise person." This book explains and explores the models that Weinberg and McCann have found most useful from a broad range of disciplines. For example:

- In difficult conversations, strive to understand the third story, the story that an impartial observer would tell. If you understand how your perspective contrasts with the third story, you can prevent the conversation from getting hostile, and better yet, make progress.
- Apply the sunk cost fallacy to end a doomed project. Just because you've put a lot of hours into it doesn't mean that you have to keep going.
- Before blaming someone, consider Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness."
- Set up forcing functions like standing meetings or deadlines to help grease the wheels for changes you want to occur.
- Use opportunity cost to figure out what to say yes to because every choice you make has a cost. Time is money.

Filled with fun and relatable examples for over 250 useful mental models, SUPERTHINKING is a must-have for anyone looking to upgrade their thinking.

Gabriel Weinberg is the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, the search engine that doesn't track you, receiving more than three billion searches in 2015. He was previously the cofounder and CEO of Opobox, which was acquired for $10 million. He lives in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and on Twitter at @yegg. He is also the author of Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth.