Mental Models
Chesterton’s Fence
Before removing anything — a rule, a habit, a relationship — understand why it exists. The traveler who tears down a fence without knowing its purpose mistakes novelty for progress. Know the reason before you demolish.
The Values Stack (Intentional Living)
Picture a stack: at the bottom, what you’re doing right now; above that, your immediate plans; then your goals; at the top, your core values.
When what you’re doing aligns with your core values, you stop reacting and start acting with purpose.
To find your hierarchy: examine where your time actually went last month. That reveals your real values — not what you think you value.
Every goal is an educated guess about where your efforts might lead. Research shows we avoid tasks that are boring, unpleasant, far in the future, or unstructured. Fixes:
- Aversion journaling — write about why you’re avoiding something; it’s less painful than the task and forces you to confront resistance
- Make it harder, not easier — easy goals demotivate. Race against a timer. Add stakes.
- Build systems — connect goals to existing habits, create reward structures that unlock only on follow-through
Staying Private
People are nosy. You don’t know what someone will do with your information.
When to stay private: plans for your future, how far along you are on something, business/creative ideas in progress.
Why: protects your energy, prevents people from stealing ideas or making you feel bad about them, gives no unnecessary insight to non-close people.
How: think before you speak and think about who you’re speaking to. Let people talk about themselves — steer away from topics about yourself unless necessary.
Find Your Rome
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do” exists for a reason. You can’t enter a situation blind and act however you want. Find where you fit best, work with that situation. Focus on joining or creating your own group — don’t start big.
The Free Pass Rule
Everyone gets 1–2 free passes for genuine mistakes, miscommunications, bad days. Not for disrespect, dishonesty, patterns, or major violations.
Track it:
- First time: “Interesting, I’ll watch for patterns”
- Second time: “Okay, this might be who they are”
- Third time: “This IS who they are — time to decide”
Pre-Mortem Framework
See 4B-pre-mortem for the full protocol. Core questions for each anticipated failure mode:
- What specific behavior would I observe?
- What is the earliest warning sign?
- What day/week does this typically happen?
- What rationalization would I tell myself?
- What would need to be true for this NOT to happen?
Process Knowledge (Dan Wang)
Three-part taxonomy: tools (physical instruments) → instructions (blueprints, IP) → process knowledge (tacit embodied understanding of how production actually works). Process knowledge lives in practitioners’ heads, can’t be bought or stolen, and is lost when practitioners leave without successors. See person-eugene-wei for adjacent thinking on status economies.
Status as a Service (Eugene Wei)
Social networks succeed by creating unique status tokens that require proof of work to earn. Early miners gain outsized status; over time tokens become harder to mine. Social capital ROI governs which demographics adopt which platforms. See person-eugene-wei.
See also: essentialism | 4B-pre-mortem | adhd-voltage-model | 1G-philosophy | 4B-tiny-experiments