Taking action that works with the world is more effective, less stressful, and ultimately more rewarding. We don’t waste our time fighting to accomplish the impossible. (Location 77)

Note: Work wiith the world rather than against it

like a traditional toolbox has a hammer when you need to pound a nail but a wrench for when you need to turn a bolt, (Location 114)

Tags: mental, metaphor

Note: .metaphor .mental models have multiple tools

Physics

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. (Location 120)

Relativity helps us to understand that there is more than one way to see everything. (Location 129)

Tags: relativity

Note: .relativity there is more than one way to see everything

The theory of relativity is founded on empathy. Not empathy in the ordinary emotional sense; empathy in a rigorous scientific sense. The crucial idea is to imagine how things would appear to someone who’s moving in a different way than you are.» (Location 131)

Tags: relativity, empathy

Galileo thus demonstrated that perspective influences what we perceive as reality and how we understand the world. (Location 151)

“Crazy that two bolts of lightning struck your train at exactly the same time,” you say. “What are you talking about?” she responds. “The front of the train got hit by lightning first.” You dismiss her interpretation. After all, you witnessed the whole thing. But here is what was happening for her: She was sitting at the midpoint of the train. If the train had been stationary, she would have observed the two lightning strikes being simultaneous like you did. However, because the train was moving, the light from the rear strike had farther to travel to reach her. She perceived the light from the strike at the front first. So, she correctly concluded that the lightning strikes were not simultaneous; the one in front happened first. (Location 164)

When you see someone doing something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask yourself what the world would have to look like to you for those actions to make sense. (Location 252)

Tags: perspective

Note: what would the world have to be like for their Actions to make sense

The core concepts of relative perspective and framing have a broad application. When someone gives you something, an opinion, a report, an article, a plan, consider how it is framed. Who is involved in this information, and what do you know about their vantage point? Knowing the factors that influence how a person frames issues helps you understand their perspective and how you can use it to augment your own. (Location 288)

Tags: framing

Note: .framing when someone gives you any form of info always consider their vantage point

Life is an iterative and compounding game. In the words of Peter Kaufman, it pays to “go positive and go first.” Also, remember that people make mistakes. Assuming there is no maliciousness, it pays to forgive. (Location 417)

Tags: proactive

Note: .proactive go positive and go first

look at outcomes in the aggregate instead of focusing on each unique situation. (Location 428)

Tags: risk, lossaversion

Note: .lossaversion dont focus on whetgee you win or lose on a given occasion. Look at the aggregate of all occassions

Thermodynamics

Much of thermodynamics is about equilibrium, including the fact that two systems of different temperatures, when exposed to each other, eventually become the same temperature. If thermal equilibrium is desirable, we can expend our efforts to maximize the exposure of the two systems to each other. Conversely, in order to keep them from reaching a state of equilibrium, some sort of insulating barrier is required. Similar to the experience of using a thermos to keep coffee hot, insulators can slow down the temperature change but cannot stop it completely. (Location 533)

Tags: thermodynamics

Note: .thermodynamics if we dont want 2 Systems to reach thernal equilibrium we should keep them separate

...two societies with different values. If we want to encourage equilibrium, then we can think of sharing as transfer of energy. There are three physical modes through which to transfer energy: radiation, convection and conduction. There are clear analogies of how these modes are used socially to achieve equilibrium across boundaries. For example, radio and TV radiate ideas across borders. Teacher-student exchanges act as intellectual and social convection currents. Brands and foreign aid conduct values. Mixing cultures gives them common ground. We move toward social equilibrium when we share ideas and values that have the same foundations. (Location 540)

Tags: culture

Note: .culture mix societies to get them to reach social and cultura equilibrium

Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel prize winning physicist, clarifies entropy in contexts such as organizing a pile of coins or the mixing of jelly and peanut butter in their containers. Why is it that if someone knocks the table the coins will get mixed up, or that despite their best efforts your children inevitably get jelly into the peanut butter jar and vice versa? “The explanation is that there are more ways for [coins] to be mixed up than sorted. There are more ways for peanut butter and jelly to contaminate each other’s containers than to remain completely pure. To the extent that chance is operating, it is likely that a closed system that has some order will move toward disorder, which offers so many more possibilities.” (Location 645)

Tags: disorder

Note: .disorder there are more combinations for disorder than order

Inertia

Inertia is a useful model to try to understand some elements of our behavior, including our thinking patterns and habits. Our natural inclination to reject the new is in part normal resistance to the effort required to change. Keeping things as they are requires almost no effort and involves little uncertainty. We need force to effect change, and force requires effort. This model offers a lens to help us understand resistance to change and why we fail ourselves when we get complacent. (Location 739)

Tags: change, inertia

Note: we resist the new as it is less certain and requires more effort to force change

At a basic level, many brain studies have shown that the idea of multitasking is a myth. When we shift our focus from one input to another, we exert more energy and use more time to finish everything than if we would have completed one task before starting another. (Location 744)

Tags: multitasking

Note: .multitasking

Friction and Viscosity

Like a smooth surface provides less challenge to a rolling ball, or how water is easier for a human to swim through than a krill, shaping our environment to reduce the challenges of opposing forces is a key to improving productivity. (Location 916)

Tags: friction, environment

Note: .environment .friction change your environment to reduce opposing forces

“lean” and is summed up in the following: “It transfers the maximum number of tasks and responsibilities to those workers actually adding value to the car on the line, and it has in place a system for discovering defects that quickly traces every problem, once discovered, to its ultimate cause.” (Location 1048)

Tags: lean

Note: .lean

Velocity

Velocity is often confused with speed, but the two concepts are very different. Speed is just movement; even if you are running in place, you have speed. Velocity has direction. You must go somewhere in order to have velocity. This model teaches us that it’s much more important to pay attention to where you are going and not how fast you are moving. No one wants to be a hamster in a wheel, focused on moving so fast that we lose track of what we’re trying to achieve. While speed ensures movement, velocity produces a result. (Location 1069)

Tags: velocity

Note: .velocity its important to focus on direction,not just speed

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him. (Location 1080)

Tags: purpose, direction

Note: .direction .purpose

Better go the right direction slowly than the wrong direction with speed. (Location 1163)

Tags: direction, velocity

Leverage

Think of written language: a way to leverage what people have learned in the past so that we don’t have to relearn everything from scratch with each new generation. Or consider standardization of processes, which gives companies leverage over people by making them easier to replace. Levers are everywhere, once you start looking for them. (Location 1192)

Tags: writing, leverage

Note: .leverage .writing writing is a way to leverage learnings of the past soo we dont repeat the same mistakes

Leverage unleashes the potential of what we can do. When we all had sticks, the variation in productivity wasn’t much. Small changes in individual performance didn’t have significant absolute impacts. It wasn’t until we developed tools that allowed us to leverage small changes in individual performance that we started to see a lot of variation in productivity. (Location 1217)

Tags: tools, leverage

Note: .leverage .tools we use tools to leverage small changes In performance for very different outputs

Chemistry

Activation Energy

Creating lasting change is harder than creating change. Don’t underestimate the activation energy required to not only break apart existing bonds, but to create new, strong ones. (Location 1549)

Catalysts

Catalysts accelerate change. While they cannot make a reaction happen that would normally not, they can significantly reduce the time required for change to occur. Finding the right catalyst is critical. No single substance increases the rate of all reactions. Because different reactions have different activation energies, there are many different catalysts. (Location 1555)

Tags: catalysts

Note: .catalysts catalysts accelerate change. You need different reactions for different reactions

The mechanisms through which catalysts work are relatively simple in theory. By creating alternative pathways for the reaction to occur, more of the reactant particles have enough energy. The reaction is then faster, safer, and, in industrial contexts, cheaper. (Location 1559)

Tags: catalysts

Note: .catalysts

Handwritten books were rare and the purview of a very small section of society. Getting access to them was complicated—you ... The printing press acted as a catalyst to accelerate the process of obtaining knowledge. There was now a repeatable process for copying knowledge: books. These books were cheaper and faster to make than the old manuscripts, and thus were more widely available. (Location 1592)

Tags: books, kindle

Note: .kindle .books kindle is to books, as books are to manuscripts

Black Death, which swept the world for several centuries, peaking in the 14th century. The epidemic was tragic, wiping out hundreds of millions of people. Yet it also proved to be a powerful catalyst for social, religious, economic, and cultural change. Though we can’t know if these changes would have happened anyway and it is only the distance of time that enables us to find anything positive in it, it seems that the Black Death was the beginning of many elements of the society we now live in. (Location 1602)

Tags: epidemic, blackdeath

Note: .blackdeath .epidemic

The precise origins of the Black Death are unlikely to ever be known, but we do know how it spread. Animals, in particular rats, carried fleas infected with the plague bacteria when they climbed aboard ships sailing around the world. The fleas then jumped onto humans, bit them, and infected them with the Black Death. In the 1340s, the trading routes that were bringing Europe new wealth and opportunities brought it something more sinister. With no knowledge of what was causing this devastating disease, people continued to move and trade, spreading the plague further and further afield. (Location 1605)

Tags: pandemic, blackdeath

Note: .blackdeath th black death spread via fleas on rats on ships.

Alloying

Aristotle* discussed five components of knowledge. “They are what we today would call science or scientific knowledge (episteme), art or craft knowledge (techne), prudence or practical knowledge (phronesis), intellect or intuitive apprehension (nous) and wisdom (sophia).” (Location 1746)

Tags: knowledge

Note: .knowledge

Alloying is about increasing strength through the combination of elements. One plus one can really equal ten. Consider a person possessing deep engineering skills with an ability to explain ideas clearly. (Location 1796)

Tags: alloy

Note: .alloy combine different elements to become greater than the sum of their parts

Biology

Latin remains the official language of Vatican City and has a significant role in Catholicism, often used in writing by officials. It’s used in some traditional, ceremonial situations, like the graduation ceremonies at Oxford University in England. (Location 1962)

Tags: latin

Note: .latin