Startup Mental Models: Mental Models Series, #2

By S VASIST

          Mental models are a representation of how things work in our minds, and you can use them to try to explain things and events. These mental models can change your behavior and point of view.
          I hope that in this book, you will find some eye-opening ideas and answers to many of your curiosities. It will help and provide insights into the matters of work, world, and growth. It is not necessary to read these models in a sequence, you can read these models in any way.
         I recommend you to fit and relate these models to your already gained knowledge and experience, and if possible imagine applying each model to the real world.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vasist Publishers
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201574772

Book preview

Black Swan

The Black Swan is a probabilistic theory, created by Nassim Taleb, a former trader who wrote a textbook on option and market making, and then became more philosophical in his bestseller The Black Swan. A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has a major impact. Black swans are explained post facto with the help of hindsight. Black Swan events are almost impossible to predict yet have far-reaching consequences, therefore, people should always assume that a Black Swan event would take place & plan accordingly.

Whether we observe an event as the black swan event depends upon the observer.  The Thanksgiving turkey sees his demise as a black swan, but the butcher does not.

Some Black Swan events:

Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, when Asian tigers busted amidst a period of long continuous economic growth.

Dot Com crash of 2000, when massive speculation and interest in Internet stocks resulted in a big crash.

Crash of 9/11/2001, when terrorist attacks on US soil killed innocent civilians, gave a blow to stocks, and changed the geopolitics of the world.

U.S. housing market crash of 2008, when subprime mortgages led to the crash of the housing market.

Entrepreneurs, Hacker & Painters

Entrepreneurs are hackers ; they make things happen in new and unconventional ways. They may tread into grey areas and find a way to work around conventional problems. Entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham wrote a book Hackers & Painters about Startups, Hackers, Painters, Wealth Creation, and productivity. This book has some very useful insights from a brilliant mind.

BOTH MORALS AND FASHION trends are temporary, which is why nerds don’t care about either of them. The statements that make people maddest are those they worry might be true.

Hackers are more like painters than mathematicians.

User feedback is the ultimate test of your programming skills, so get it as fast as possible.

There is not a fixed amount of wealth in the world. Making money is a very