Essays

Making decisions is hard and I found decision-making skills challenging to practice. One exercise that I’m currently exploring is the deliberate use of mental models to analyze case studies. This one is about the article “Like knocking down the Eiffel tower, battle to save historic Prague bridge“. Summary of the main points The Vyšehrad bridge in Prague is facing demolition due to a plan from Czech Railways to replace it with a modern structure....

This post is a short analysis of a history article. My goal was to practically apply mental models in order to improve my thinking. Question to answer: What led to the Mayan’s downfall? Article Summary The Mayan Empire was centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, and reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. Unlike other scattered Indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block and remained relatively secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples....

All life is problem-solving. – Karl Popper To create value for someone, to make progress with anything usually means solving problems. You want to achieve a goal, but unfortunately, there are obstacles in your way that you need to resolve to get there. At any one point in time, you probably have a full to-do list of problems that never empties. New items appear with every progress you make....

We often have an inflated opinion of our understanding of reality. We think we know how things work. But as Philip Tetlock showed elegantly in his research, even experts are typically not much more accurate than anyone taking random guesses. This is bad because if your understanding of reality is inaccurate, you’ll inevitably make some horrible decisions in your life. The main reason for our false understanding seems to be confirmation bias....

You have 6 hours to invest. Do you read one book slowly and deeply or do you browse and skim through various articles, books, and videos? In other words, do you go deep or broad? Before you jump to any conclusion for one or the other, you have to think about goals first. What do you want to achieve? Or going about it backwards, which of the two is useful for which goals?...