Articles on Mental Frameworks

Breaking Out of the Stories We Make Up About Ourselves

This is a story about a box that I’ve been hiding in and how I’ve been fighting to break free. “What’s one thing you learned about yourself in the past year?,” a close friend asked during my birthday dinner. It was a well-timed question. The past year has been one of intense personal growth. I’ve become more aware of my impact on people, my limiting beliefs, and my dreams, and... (more)

What’s Possible Here?

This story captures for me what’s possible in 2017. A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region in Africa to explore opportunities for business expansion. One reports back, “Situation hopeless. No one wears shoes.” The other writes back enthusiastically, “Glorious business opportunity! They have no shoes.” The exact same observation. Two very different interpretations. This story, related by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander in The Art of Possibility, illustrates... (more)

Taking Ownership Is The Most Effective Way to Get What You Want

In 1967, American psychologist Martin Seligman discovered that our perception of control greatly shapes our choices and behavior. In an oft-cited study, he subjected two groups of dogs to electrical shocks. In the first group, the dogs could press a lever to end the shock. In the second, the lever did nothing; the shocks appeared to continue for random durations, and the dogs in this group could do nothing to... (more)

How a Small Change Can Boost Your Motivation and Performance

In 2009, Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson made a surprising discovery in the science of motivation. She conducted a series of studies where she asked participants to solve a set of puzzles and problems. In one group — the “be-good” group — participants were told that their score reflected their “conceptual and analytical abilities.” They should try to solve as many problems as possible and aim for a high score to... (more)

How Modeling the Value of Your Time with a Single Number Can Simplify Decisions

My friend carried a box of her used cans and bottles into the Safeway and waited at the customer service counter. Minutes later, a customer rep tallied up the 5- and 10-cent containers, double checked the math, and rewarded my friend with a dollar and change for her 10 minutes of patience. My friend’s frugality and thriftiness – no doubt passed down from her Asian immigrant parents who had painstakingly... (more)

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“A comprehensive tour of our industry's collective wisdom written with clarity.”

— Jack Heart, Engineering Manager at Asana

“Edmond managed to distill his decade of engineering experience into crystal-clear best practices.”

— Daniel Peng, Senior Staff Engineer at Google

“I wish I had this manual to give my engineers when I was a VP of Engineering at Twitter. This summarizes and presents everything I used to tell my team.”

— Raffi Krikorian, Engineering Director at Uber

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