Aim for “slightly looser” mental models that allow external reality data to “seep through the cracks” of your perception, disturbing your mind and causing disruptions that lead to learning and adaptation.
Regularly practice mindfulness by shutting down inner dialogue and paying direct attention to the real world through your senses (sight, sound) to ensure your mental models remain open to new reality data.
Continuously feed your mental models with new reality data to prevent them from becoming internally consistent but ultimately valueless “financial bubbles” disconnected from the real world.
Strive to maintain a “Red Queen’s arms race” balance between actively engaging with external reality data and internally processing that information to make your mental models more coherent and useful for future simulations.
Be cautious of excessively connecting ideas from different domains solely within your mind, as this process can dangerously increase the complexity and interconnectedness of your mental models, making them more likely to blind you to new realities.
If you notice your enjoyment filters are leading to an “addictive trap” of only consuming “mind candy” or avoiding challenging content, actively work to rewire your habits to develop tolerance and appreciation for content that previously upset or threatened you.
Prioritize enjoyment as your primary heuristic for reading; if you are enjoying something, continue reading it, and if not, set it aside, as enjoyment is a crucial part of effective filtering and engagement.
Dedicate a significant portion of your reading to random, exploratory discovery, following trails and interests, as this process creates “cracks” in secure mental models and allows for serendipitous insights and new perspectives.
For exploratory reading, avoid imposing a rigid “meta process” or attempting to force connections, as over-structuring can kill the natural serendipity required for high-value insights to emerge.
When working on a well-defined project, engage in structured reading to perform a literature survey and understand the “idea maze” of the domain, mapping the area you are exploring.
Dedicate significant time to solving challenging problems, such as those in advanced mathematics or physics, as this rigorous “mental weight training” can profoundly shape and forge your brain’s capacity for thinking.
Engage in writing to help clarify your thoughts and move beyond current understandings. Actively seeking and exploring criticisms of your written work can reveal blind spots and lead to fruitful new avenues of thought.
Write down your own conclusions and reflections from your work, even if they aren’t suitable for academic publication, as it’s a valuable way to process and capture your thoughts.
Focus your predictive efforts on understanding “how” future ways of working will be more effective, rather than getting caught in the “what” and “when” of specific future events, which can lead to utopianism and disappointment.
Recognize that framing decisions in terms of “good vs. evil” is an ancient, simplifying mechanism for navigating social survival, which can massively simplify complex social decision-making by categorizing groups.
Resist the temptation to conclude that any single approach to thinking and decision-making is universally the best, as effectiveness depends on context and desired outcomes.
Understand that mental models primarily serve to simplify an overwhelmingly complex world and maintain internal consistency, rather than perfectly represent external reality.
Engage in periodic re-reading of certain books, as this can allow you to unpack new layers of meaning and philosophical depth each time, continuously reshaping and influencing your thinking over the long term.
When discussing influential books or ideas, be aware that such conversations often function as a social signaling game, where you might inadvertently be advertising the identity you wish to project rather than objectively assessing true influence.
Identify whether you have a bias towards internal thinking (reflection) or external engagement (mindfulness) to consciously work towards balancing these two processes for healthier mental functioning.