Evolution as a mental model can be summed up as “adapt or die.”

animals. We move in the direction of rewards and will easily take steps to avoid punishment. Humans, when we are thoughtful about incentives, will change our behavior to attain a perceived benefit. We will go through the same behavioral hoops to detour around perceived disadvantages.

While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, if we have overlooked anything please let us know. This book wouldn’t be possible without the insights of others. The goal of FS is to master the best of what other people have figured out. True to this mission, everything in here began with someone else. Any reproduction of this book r

Leverage is achieving results significantly greater than the force you put in. Isn’t

Perspective often comes from distance or time. If you’re trying to solve a problem and you’re stuck, try shifting your vantage point. Examples of this are moving up and contemplating the bigger picture, moving down and seeing more details, or assuming the perspective of other stakeholders—customers, suppliers, partners, government. Many problems be

It easier to redirect a canoe than a battleship. Being able to move in the right direction is a lot more useful than going fast in the wrong one.

This is why having a direction is so important: it lets us evaluate the usefulness of what we are doing by giving us a measurement of where we want to go.

In biology, convergence refers to the process wherein organisms evolve analogous traits that were not present in their last common ancestor. In other words, species that are not closely related to each other will find the same solutions to the same problems in their quest to survive.

Published in 2019 by Latticework Publishing