The Great Mental Models, Volume 2

From the New York Times bestselling author of Clear Thinking and Farnam Street founder, Shane Parrish.

The second book in the timeless Great Mental Models series.

Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields.

Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back.

Volume 2 of The Great Mental Models series provides a collection of over twenty important concepts from physics, chemistry, and biology in a clear and accessible style. Not only will you better understand the hidden forces that influence the world around you, you’ll also learn how those forces can work to your advantage.

Some of the mental models covered in this book include:

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  Leverage: When the application of a small force to one end results in a larger force at the other end.

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  Inertia: An object (or organization) at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force.

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  Activation Energy: The minimum amount of energy required to incite a chemical reaction.


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  Ecosystems: A community of organisms that have complex relationships to each other.