Mental models #

AKA the architecture we use to relay understanding to similar objectives #

When we learn how to do something we create a mental model of it. 

Mental models are a sense of how a process functions. It can be as organized as a geopolitical map, or as simple as opening the toothpaste, or as complex as the mechanisms used to study particle physics.

The key is that we now have a process we understand. We can pull it apart and reorganize it so it flows better for a certain situation. We can teach it to someone else. We can even apply it, in part or in whole, to something that seems to work somewhat the same, but maybe not, but let’s try?

When you are checking out a shopping cart on a new-to-you website, you’re using a mental model.

When you’re looking for lost keys, you’re using a mental model.

Trying to apply information gleaned from a video or book? Mental model.

We hold within our minds a vast array of models, and transfer them into novel use all the time. They help us move through, parse our world, and adapt. 

Where memory tells us exactly what to do, and cognitive biases provide what amounts mental sluiceways to overcome troubleshooting of ‘knowns’, mental models provide frameworks to adaptively overcome troubleshooting new or relatively new processes.

Repurposing and hacking are, in a way, a heightened form of mental modeling. Rube Goldberg machines are a physicalized form of building using adaptive/novel mental models focused on implicit or created energy availability.