Wisereads Vol. 60 — The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish, Chris Dixon on hobbies, and more
Last week, we shared a chapter of Paul Millerd's new book on reclaiming inner ambition, Good Work. This week, we're sharing a preview of Shane Parrish's updated collection on thinking like history's greatest leaders, The Great Mental Models.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
Automating Processes with Software is HARD
Engineer Steven Sinofsky explains that the complexity in automation arises not from routine tasks, but from the exceptions that stack up over time. "The best diagnosis for exception handling I can think of is to wait in line at the post office. If you’ve ever done that, you know the thought of 'doesn’t anyone just want to mail a package' comes to mind. As it turns out the entire flow at the post office (or DMV or tax office) is about exception handling. No amount of software is going to get you out of there because it is piecing together a bunch of inputs and outputs that are outside the bounds of a system."
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
As a recent graduate herself, Rose Horowitch reports on how policy changes and standardized testing have led students to struggle with reading entire books. "Mike Szkolka, a teacher and an administrator who has spent almost two decades in Boston and New York schools, told me that excerpts have replaced books across grade levels. 'There's no testing skill that can be related to... Can you sit down and read Tolstoy?' he said. And if a skill is not easily measured, instructors and district leaders have little incentive to teach it."
What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years
The PC, the web, and Linux have one key thing in common, notes author and a16z partner Chris Dixon: they were built by hobbyists. "Business people vote with their dollars, and are mostly trying to create near-term financial returns. Engineers vote with their time, and are mostly trying to invent interesting new things. Hobbies are what the smartest people spend their time on when they aren’t constrained by near-term financial goals."
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
Why you’re so tired
Johnny Harris unpacks new research suggesting that an abundance of daily decisions produces a buildup of glutamate, bringing on an afternoon slump. "A lot of cultures have a solve for this. It’s called biphasic sleep, which is just a cool sounding name for a nap in the afternoon. People usually around the Mediterranean take naps from the hours of like two to five. They rest, they reset. Research found that people who take siestas have increased brain functioning and are 37% less likely to die of heart disease."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
I want to show you how to get some deals
Menswear writer Derek Guy shares tips for uncovering vintage treasures on eBay, from paying attention to labels to mastering Boolean searches. "So if you're looking for that old quality, traditional style cashmere in grandpa's closet, do a Boolean search for (Scotland, Scottish) cashmere. This will bring up everything with Scottish cashmere OR Scotland cashmere in the title."
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Movie Gen: A Cast of Media Foundation Models
In their new report, Meta unveils Movie Gen, a model that enables imaginative editing, synced audio, and personalized videos from a single photo—overcoming challenges that humans handle effortlessly. "Imagine a blue emu swimming through the ocean. Humans have the astonishing ability to imagine such a fictional scene in great detail. Human imagination requires the ability to compose and predict various facets of the world. Simply imagining a scene requires composing different concepts while predicting realistic properties about motion, scene, physics, geometry, audio etc."
Hand-picked book of the week
The Great Mental Models
Leaders throughout history have relied on a common set of principles—a mental toolkit—to inform their thinking. The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish, creator of Farnam Street and Brain Food, offers a masterclass on these principles. This updated four-volume collection, now with insights on economics and art, covers everything from inversion and inertia to feedback loops and second-order thinking.
"There is no system that can prepare us for all risks. Factors of chance introduce a level of complexity to any situation that is not entirely predictable. But being able to draw on a repertoire of timeless mental models can help us minimize risk by better understanding the forces that are at play. Likely consequences don’t have to be a mystery."
We're over the moon that Shane is offering Wisereads readers a preview of Volume One. If you enjoy it, you can preorder The Great Mental Models before its release on October 15th and submit your receipt to receive special bonuses, including a PDF summary of all four volumes' mental models here.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Pen, Book and Garden: Notes from Linnesby
From her home in the Swedish countryside, Linnesby-Maria pens literary essays on works by masterful authors like Yoko Tawada, Tove Jansson, and Henry David Thoreau. From To live deliberately: "I upended my life and moved altogether to the little village where I live now, where instead of giving up on responsibility for others I took it on, and at the same time received more help than I can ever express adequate thanks for in suddenly managing a house and a garden, and cooking, and everything else material."