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The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology by [Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien]

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Shane Parrish

The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology Kindle Edition

by Shane Parrish (Author), Rhiannon Beaubien (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

738 ratings

Book 2 of 3: The Great Mental Models

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***This is the second book in The Great Mental Models series and the highly anticipated follow up to the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts.***

We tend to isolate the things we know in the domain we learned it. For example:

-What does the inertia of a rolling stone have to do with perseverance and being open-minded?
-How can the ancient process of steel production make you a more creative and innovative thinker?
-What does the replication of our skin cells have to do with being a stronger and more effective leader?

On the surface, these concepts may appear to be dissimilar and unrelated. But the surprising truth is the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology) offer a wealth of useful tools you can use to develop critically important skills like:

- Relationship building
- Leadership
- Communication
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Problem-solving
- Decision-making

This second volume of the Great Mental Models series shows you how to make those connections. It explores the core ideas from the hard sciences and offers nearly two dozen models to add to your mental toolbox.

You'll not only get a better understanding of the forces that influence the world around you, but you'll learn how to direct those forces to create outsized advantages in the areas of your life that matter most to you.

Print length

263 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 4, 2020
File size

5481 KB
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Popular Highlights in this book

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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.
Highlighted by 1,516 Kindle readers
Perspective often comes from distance or time. If you’re trying to solve a problem and you’re stuck, try shifting your vantage point.
Highlighted by 1,317 Kindle readers
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.
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Editorial Reviews

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''I'm really glad this exists in the world and I can see that I will be recommending it often.'' --Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

"I'm really glad this exists in the world and I can see that I will be recommending it often." Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B085HY11NF
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Latticework Publishing Inc. (March 4, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 4, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5481 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #80,903 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #87 in Business Decision-Making
- #340 in Business Decision Making
- #348 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving

Customer Reviews:
738 ratings

About the author

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Shane Parrish

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Shane Parrish is the founder, curator, and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street (www.fs.blog) and the host of The Knowledge Project Podcast.

Farnam Street helps you master the best of what other people have already figured out. With more than 250,000 subscribers, consistently sold-out workshops, and over 10 million podcast downloads, Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project have become the go-to resource that CEOs, athletes, professional coaches, and entrepreneurs rely on to upgrade themselves.

Shane’s work has been featured in nearly every major publication, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Forbes.

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fusio

Waste of time and effort. This book shouldn't exist.

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

Very a disappointing book. The authors obviously are not able to carry what they lifted. While they are set out to explain thinking patters in analogies to natural phenomena, it quickly turns out they have no ideas about the nature of natural phenomena they describe. Chapter one, an example of a person in a train that is hit by lightning at each end.
Authors claim that for a person observing the train from the middle would see lightnings as happening at the same time, however, a person travelling in the middle of train would see lighting in the front of train happening sooner than the lightning in the back.
wow!
Really?
What authors obviously missed is just how fast the speed of light is.
Roughly 300 000 km/s, or 186 000 mi/s. That's over billion km per hour.
For a human to perceive 2 visual events as different, they must around 0.1 sec apart. Over this time light travels 30000km or 18600 miles.
So for a human to be able to perceive these two flashes of lightnings as different events, the train then would need to travel at speeds approaching speed of light. We talk of the train travelling at speed of around billion of km per hour.
And of course, it makes this example ridiculous.
And that's coming from people claiming to introduce you to thinking models.
What charlatans!
So dont waste time and money.
If you are interested in improving you thinking patterns, read Cialdini, Kahneman, Taleb and other people who know what they are writing about and write about things they know.
I forced myself to suffer a bit more of this book.
Poorly written, theses are missing examples and illustrations, lots of mentioning of concepts that authors obviously know by name only, eg, e=mc2. etc.
When I saw the name of one of the next chapters Thermodynamics, I realized it is enough suffering.
If it was a paper book, it would be about the time for it to be recycled so that it can be used to print something useful.
Just waste of time and effort.

56 people found this helpful

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Sam

Excellent Book in Form and Substance

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2020

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The Great Mental Models series is a stunning achievement in centralizing the many models for thought in an organized fashion. Shane Parish and the team at Farnam Street are uniquely positioned by their extensive interviews with thoughtful leaders of the day to summarize different models for improved decision making. This series is a thoughtful extension to the years of content already created.

Volume 2 focuses on models related to the scientific fields where Volume 1 was focused on more general concepts. I am excited for Volume 3.

I would suggest buying the physical book. (Volume 1 has already sold out at the time of writing this review.) The published versions are something to behold with quality construction and graphics that have become a rarity in books of the day.

The encyclopedic content is complex but easily digested- I've found myself referencing the first volume on numerous occasions. This is another reason to buy the published over the digital book.

If asked to be critical, I find some of the sections a tad brief and could benefit from additional coverage. However, each subject matter offers the ability to write an entire book, so walking the line between detailed discussion and general concepts is a delicate walk- this is handled perfectly overall.

In a rare act, I purchased multiple copies of the first volume and gave them as gifts.

15 people found this helpful

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Rod Berryman

A must read, for anyone looking to better understand the complexities of the world we live in.

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2020

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The Great Mental Models I can truly say is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of getting lost in.
I loved the book and the challenges to conventional wisdom and thinking it presents.

A member of Farnam Street, I truly appreciate the work Farnam Street do and find Shane Parish to be a truly extraordinary thinker

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Pretentious. Silly.

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was excited to read this series given the high rating. Was also carried away by the smart sounding titles "The great mental models" etc. My excitement continued as I read the introduction. And then I was let down.

The first chapter titled "relativity" was all I needed to close the book and grieve for my wasted time and money. The so called Einstein train example would make the scientist roll in grave weeping. the review from fusio explains in detail all that's wrong with this example. It was clear from this one example that the author has a very shallow understanding of basic concepts of physics. For a book with physics on its cover page, this is unacceptable. An 8th grade student would be horrified with the text.

There were other minor issues I noticed. The author uses thick paper, large fonts, large margins, too many analogies, examples and completely uninformative drawings covering full pages. I was reminded of my school days when I would hit minimum page limit for my thesis by using some of these techniques. I wouldn't be surprised if the reader could get everything that the author wants to express in just 1/10 of the size of the book. This is by far the most pretentious book I have purchase in my entire life.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Great Book!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2020

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The first book in this series opened my eyes to mental models and second edition has now doubled down on introducing practical applications of models that exist within physics and biology. They're simple, great, and extremely applicable. Always love supporting Farnam Street, they're doing great things for the world. Go Canada.

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2020

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It’s a great book to not only get the fundamentals on the various topics, but it really prompts you to see its application in your own circumstances.

One person found this helpful

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aidanhornsby

Bring on volume 3!

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2020

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A wonderful follow up to Volume 1 (General Thinking Concepts), this book breaks down a range of insanely valuable models from the scientific disciplines, exploring them through a practical lens.

While the content is rich and dense, Farnam Street helps make them easy to digest, enjoyable to read, and explores them through a lens of practicality and application.

This series of books has an audacious goal: Curating and distilling the big ideas from the big disciplines to help readers think better, and ultimately make better decisions. So far, both entries are a smashing success. I'm excited to see which models the team explores next.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

JW Kim

Basic Science for Adults packaged in a posh book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

There are several "mental models" that are quite important when understanding the world, especially like one in modern times where conventional knowledge doesn't seem to quite cut it.

Understanding exponential changes, understanding networks and emergence, understanding non linear change, understanding time scales and physical scales.
None of these are present in this book.

Instead the author seems to find it self aggrandising to present simple basic scientific grammar school level knowledge as some erudite wisdom.

It's nice to look at, though the red seems a bit tiresome, and I don't think the facade of it being something even moderately intelligent beyond the brash title would go far.

11 people found this helpful

I. Krutainis

Waiting for volume 3

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

The second volume of mental models is great, even more insightful than the first one. Been following Farnam st blog and podcast for years and Mental Models are at the heart of their thinking about life. Recommended

3 people found this helpful

r

Beautiful, intriguing book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

Beautifully designed, interesting, and delightful book I will be returning to for years to come. Also arrived in less than 24 hours!

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Nice seller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Very nice and polite seller. Book was delivered on time. Thank you!

Tim Gayton

Some okay insights but not as compelling as volume one.

Reviewed in Australia on May 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

My anchor for this book and review, was from Volume 1 in the series, which I thought to be a resourceful and worthwhile read.
Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and perhaps due to the science based focus, I found to be less engaging. The book was longer, and felt to be a longer duration to consume.
I do have an interest in Science, and while the correlations of the science headings to extract the learnings, this science aspect just didn't seem to resonate and constituted in a less engaging novel.
However, sections do have merit, and after rereading my highlight,s I was reminded of the some good tidbits which are littered throughout. Although, these were less in comparison with the first book in the series.
I was also able to use the book as a reference for one of my uni assignments, so there was an added benefit.
Some of the standout highlights:

'Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.' - J.D Salinger.

'When it comes to reciprocity, we need to understand, “We are driven more strongly to avoid losses than to achieve gains.'

'Eventually your competitors will match your strength or find innovative ways to neutralise it.'

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