• 🧠 Learning Outline
• Building blocks

🧠 1. What Are the First Principles of Mental Models?

A first principle is an irreducible concept—something foundational you can’t (and shouldn’t) simplify further. These are the bedrock on which all robust mental models are built.

🧩 Five First Principles of Mental Models:

1. Everything is a System

• Systems have elements, relationships, and purpose (“Purpose” = the function the system actually performs—not necessarily what it claims to do).
• Most mental models are simplifications of how systems behave.
• → Source: Donella Meadows, Peter Senge

2. Feedback Shapes Behavior

• Feedback loops (positive or negative) determine how systems evolve over time.
• Reinforcement or balancing explains stability vs. growth vs. collapse.
• → Source: Cybernetics, Forrester, CLDs

3. Information is Filtered Through Models

• We never perceive reality directly—we filter it through beliefs, concepts, and prior experience.
• → Source: Boyd (OODA), Kahneman, Vervaeke

4. All Models Are Wrong, Some Are Useful

• Models simplify, not replicate, reality.
• The utility of a model is in its predictive power, not its “truth.”
• → Source: George Box (statistician), Bayesian thinking