Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts

Top positive review

fun and good advice

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023

I liked this book a lot, it gave me some great reminders and some new reminders to reflect on. The probability chapter was my favorite, I tend to nerd out and think there has to be an accurate numerical way to represent reality, but it’s never completely true.

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

José Vera Campello

Good but to simple

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022

The foundation is good, the will to explain how system artifacts affect us is good. But the execution is simplistic, the text is short and the content reads like a short story, amidst a recommendation brochure.

It's good but not very good.

2 people found this helpful

3,688 total ratings, 229 with reviews

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From the United States

Andrew Clarke

fun and good advice

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023

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Crash

Easy, fun read. Digestible and helpful.

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2023

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A fun read with a perfect balance of anecdotes from history to showcase the mental models presented. Short and easy read. Will continue with the other volumes.

One person found this helpful

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Isaque

Great Book, worth reading..

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2022

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The book is great and it is worth pondering every single mental model he describes. You may already know some of them or even all of them but having it described and discussed before you sheds some lights on aspects of the model you may have ignored in your use of it. I was deeply enlightened by many of the book’s discussions. The use of stories of great men and women is well crafted in almost all discussions.

The only complaint I have is the naturalistic viewpoint that is preached in some parts of the book. I believe the author fails to apply the very thing he’s advocating for when he does that: a rational analysis of what is said. Take the Sagan example and do it by yourself, he throws one phrase from a scientist in the air as if the phrase was a scientific argument, which is clearly not. Note that the phrase in question is so damaging that it has been used many times to discredit important recent scientific discoveries.

Anyways, my 2 cents: focus on what the author do best and forget about his wandering into metaphysics.

One person found this helpful

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Samuel LeBaron Abbott III

Top 5

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2022

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This is in the top ten books I’ve read. I’m planning to buy several of these to gift to close friends. If you’re intrigued by the notion of thinking better—more effectively, more decisively, more confidently—this book is an accessible treasure trove of practical information. If you’ve ever read Robert Greene and enjoyed it, this is written in a similar style without the diabolical tone and effect. Further, the design of it and reasonable price makes it an all around win. Just love it. Highly recommended! — from a guy who has a personal library of over a thousand books and reluctantly tells people I like to read when they ask what I do for fun.

4 people found this helpful

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Fernando Castro

All considered, a good summary

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019

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I won’t give 5 stars because what is a five star book? This was a very easy read for anyone who knows how to read and want to polish their thinking with a few tools. Unless you are an expert, it’s worth reading and keeping it handy. Where it could have been better is mostly when Shane writes examples. They are good, but I think half of them aren’t quite accurate or he is just speculating that someone used x or y model but he doesn’t really know. How about 5 examples that can contrast to one another; how about not showing them as a one mental model specific (as I’m sure all cases are a mix of several models) I guess it becomes the task of the reader to figure it out, but having listened to Shane before, I believe he could pull up better “case studies”. Also, we live in such complex interesting times; do we really need to talk about people who supposedly used these models 300 years ago? And not in our lifetime? I’m sure there is no malice in just writing about very old examples, it’s probably a Hanlin’s razor case! — FS / Shane is doing a great service putting this out there - but they can do much better with not a lot of effort. Thank you Shane.

23 people found this helpful

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Abhishek Sharma

Assortment of some very important thinking frameworks.

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2020

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This book is a consolidation of the wonderful mental models that Farnam Street has learned over the years from its highly distinguished guests. The cover image does a perfect TL;DR on what the book really is - it is an assortment of important thinking concepts (frameworks) that you want:
a) to be aware of, and
b) keep handy to apply
whenever you are thinking deeply about a problem or a life decision. It seems Shane Parrish has good motivations to assemble this because probably he is probably trying to teach all these models to his own kids.

Note, I use the word assemble (with intention) because it is certainly an assembly book. The book does
_not_ introduce some extensive new research or offer a brand new concept/model per se but rather is a nice consolidation of many important ideas in one single place -- the content is by no means author's original findings and they don't claim so either. Having said that, getting everything organized cohesively isn't easy at all, so kudos to them in my opinion. A clear read overall & definitely something to have in your bookshelf.

2 people found this helpful

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Göksenin

easy to read for sharpening the thinking

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2023

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It is a useful overview of the mental fallacies we fall into everyday and ways to undo them.

It is a must read for all

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Mike L

good summary of different thinking models

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2022

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Quick read and straight to the point which I’m a fan of. The book goes over roughly 10 different thinking concepts and gives examples of each. It’s a bit short and lacking in some detail for the price you pay, but I felt I gained some knowledge in these areas, so still worth it to me. I plan to pickup another book that goes into these concepts in greater detail, but I think this one is a good start to see if you enjoy reading about this topic

One person found this helpful

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Eric B

Awesome

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2023

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Solid read. Moving on to the next book. Check out the podcast! I dig the work and think you will too.

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sreekar

A good read indeed

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021

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I liked the effort that the author made in collating the important models and present it to author. I am pretty sure that the regular use of these mental models would lead to better decisions. While reading the book, I was able to recall many instances where I could have made a better decision if I was equipped with a better decision-making model. I also enjoyed the fact the author decided to keep the book short as this enabled to go through the topics multiple times without worrying that I would need to spend a lot of time in understanding the point.

A good read and I would definitely recommend it to people who would like to know the process of making better decisions.

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