3 ms·

I've just discovered "Mental Models". It's really weird putting a name to the mechanisms I've used to explain and reason for as long as I can remember.

newprint 7y ago
Smell BS ? It is a new Buzz word. Just wait, it will pass.
- kempbellt 7y ago
  Not everyone has such a verbose vocabulary to describe the intricacies of the human mind and the mechanisms it uses to map and navigate the world. For a child "I pictured it in my head" is equivalent to an adult saying "I have a mental model of it"
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  The term was coined in the 1940s so it is not likely a buzz word.
  - andrewflnr 7y ago
    The recent usage of "mental model" is. The fact that the term had a more useful meaning before makes its buzzwordification all the more irritating. Before a mental model was just a way you thought of something. Now they're Named Things to be shoehorned all over the place. Imagine if "design pattern" had been a casually but widely used term before Design Patterns came out (maybe it was, I wasn't around then).
    - james_s_tayler 7y ago
      So... What would you call them instead?
      - andrewflnr 7y ago
        I would probably try to find a more specific term for the specific idea I'm talking about rather than try to use one term for all of them. That said, "heuristic" is a good term for a lot of them. "Framework" is another one that came up in this thread.
        james_s_tayler 7y ago
        The entire reason to call them "Mental Models" is to aid in their communication and discovery. There are many hueristics that are not mental models. There are many things that are frameworks that are not mental models. Labelling something a "mental model" as used in this context serves the purpose to communicate "here is an abstraction with unusually good power-to-weight ratio that you can leverage to aide your thinking/reasoning about situations that meet a given set of criteria". It's actually a very specific thing.
- Dayjagupta 7y ago
  Promoting diverse and inclusive ways of thinking is a buzzword now?
- GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
  Less BS, it's just vocabulary that isn't widely circulated. Possibly due to a "rationalism" fad. I'm looking at you CFAR.
morley 7y ago
I've heard the word "heuristics" more recently, but I think I learned (and later forgot) both terms when I was a kid. One interesting thing about heuristics is that it's important to learn when they _don't_ apply. If a heuristic is true 80% of the time, it's also untrue 20% of the time. And the obverse to that thought is that you shouldn't let that 20% fail rate discourage you from using the heuristic the other 80% of times.

newprint 7y ago

Smell BS ? It is a new Buzz word. Just wait, it will pass.

kempbellt 7y ago
Not everyone has such a verbose vocabulary to describe the intricacies of the human mind and the mechanisms it uses to map and navigate the world. For a child "I pictured it in my head" is equivalent to an adult saying "I have a mental model of it"
oh_sigh 7y ago
The term was coined in the 1940s so it is not likely a buzz word.
- andrewflnr 7y ago
  The recent usage of "mental model" is. The fact that the term had a more useful meaning before makes its buzzwordification all the more irritating. Before a mental model was just a way you thought of something. Now they're Named Things to be shoehorned all over the place. Imagine if "design pattern" had been a casually but widely used term before Design Patterns came out (maybe it was, I wasn't around then).
  - james_s_tayler 7y ago
    So... What would you call them instead?
    - andrewflnr 7y ago
      I would probably try to find a more specific term for the specific idea I'm talking about rather than try to use one term for all of them. That said, "heuristic" is a good term for a lot of them. "Framework" is another one that came up in this thread.
      - james_s_tayler 7y ago
        The entire reason to call them "Mental Models" is to aid in their communication and discovery. There are many hueristics that are not mental models. There are many things that are frameworks that are not mental models. Labelling something a "mental model" as used in this context serves the purpose to communicate "here is an abstraction with unusually good power-to-weight ratio that you can leverage to aide your thinking/reasoning about situations that meet a given set of criteria". It's actually a very specific thing.
Dayjagupta 7y ago
Promoting diverse and inclusive ways of thinking is a buzzword now?
GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
Less BS, it's just vocabulary that isn't widely circulated. Possibly due to a "rationalism" fad. I'm looking at you CFAR.

morley 7y ago

I've heard the word "heuristics" more recently, but I think I learned (and later forgot) both terms when I was a kid. One interesting thing about heuristics is that it's important to learn when they _don't_ apply. If a heuristic is true 80% of the time, it's also untrue 20% of the time. And the obverse to that thought is that you shouldn't let that 20% fail rate discourage you from using the heuristic the other 80% of times.