Motivation
Mental models are conceptual tools we use to navigate the world. There are some that we regularly come across, such as the 80/20 principle and Bayesian reasoning. What I was interested in, however, was the wealth of tools and frameworks hidden within specific disciplines. What are the modes of thinking developed by evolutionary biologists, or architects, and how can they be generalized and applied elsewhere? Through this project, I was interested in uncovering mental models used by experts trained in a specific discipline, and exporting them to a general cognitive toolkit.
The project was selected for and funded by Wharton Passion Projects.
Product
Learnings
I was surprised by the extent to which experts didn’t seem aware of their own mental models. I had to do a lot of cognitive work in the interviews to turn the concepts the experts were discussing into generalizable tools that could be applied to other areas of life. Implicit belief structures and intuitions are good for the individual, but can’t be communicated well; this seems really important for interdisciplinary work.
Seeking perfection when you start a venture is a fruitless and actively harmful quest. It turns out that hosting a podcast is really difficult (from interviewing, to editing, to listening to your voice on repeat for hours). I found that expecting a really high quality product from the get-go was really discouraging; accepting that it was going to take time to improve gave me the space to just learn and create.
