I finally compiled the series of posts that became my book ReModel. I reordered and edited everything for the book for reading and learning, but most of the text is here. Click here to go to the series. The series describes and expands around an exercise to write your mental models and beliefs. I’ve found the exercise helpful for increasing your awareness—your mental models and beliefs influence your perception of[…] Keep reading →

[EDIT February 2020: I gathered, edited, and compiled all the posts I listed below into my book ReModel, which I recommend if you prefer a more curated experience with less clicking. Either way, I recommend doing the exercise. It gives a new way of seeing the world that costs nothing and takes little time.] This series covers my doing my Write Your Beliefs exercise, which I’ve found one of the[…] Keep reading →

I wrote the following to someone and couldn’t help sharing it here. There’s a common belief that passions are something you find. Like if you just turn over enough rocks you’ll find yours. It’s a nice fantasy and excuse for people who haven’t achieved much to explain why they haven’t and others have: “Well, I could do as much as so-and-so if I had found my passion. When I do[…] Keep reading →

Some of my favorite posts are when I visual model something complex. I created a new category, “Visualizations,” and in this post will link to most of them. Below are some of the visualizations I made. They’re out of context, but click on any to see the posts they’re in. I predict you’ll like them. Or click on the Visualization category to see all the posts in the category by[…] Keep reading →

Imagine you want a product and you know a store that sells it. You go to the store. Now imagine the moment you walk in, a salesperson walks up to you with the product you want—the same brand, model, color, and everything, even at a great price—and says, “I know what you want. Here’s what you’re looking for.” It would make you suspicious, wouldn’t it? Despite them offering what you[…] Keep reading →

I love learning about nature! I looked up about what happens to the mass you lose when you lose weight. A paper last month in the peer-reviewed BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), “When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?” confirmed what I had read casually: you exhale it, or rather you exhale 84% of it. The rest is water, which we excrete “in the urine, faeces, sweat, breath,[…] Keep reading →

I believe that whatever someone does, ultimately I am responsible for my emotions. Someone can try to make me feel unhappy, but they can’t unless I let them. I didn’t always feel that way. I used to blame others for how I felt. Maybe someone more skilled at making me feel bad could outdo my skills at resilience, but it hasn’t happened yet, at least not since I started developing[…] Keep reading →

Have you ever wondered about when you lose weight what happens to the mass you lose? I didn’t think of it either. My first thought was that you excrete it. You lose some water and salt to sweating, but I figured that got replaced so didn’t figure into long-term weight loss. I didn’t wonder how the mass you lose would get to your kidneys or bowels. I read recently that[…] Keep reading →

The dominant mainstream mental model I see about protecting the environment associates it with deprivation. I think most people associate helping the environment with driving cars with poor acceleration, eating food they don’t like, and wearing clothes made of hemp. I find this message counterproductive and inconsistent with what works. It’s counterproductive because it repels most people. I find it inconsistent because to me the basic elements of protecting the[…] Keep reading →