#448 — The Philosophy of Good and Evil

In our unpredictable and competitive world, your ability to make good decisions has an exceptional impact on your success in life and work. Fortunately, you can become a skilled decision maker by using mental models—powerful thinking tools that equip you to cut through complexity and understand the world.

In this first volume of The Great Mental Models series, Farnam Street founder Shane Parrish and content strategist Rhiannon Beaubien discuss how and why to think with mental models. They present nine timeless, foundational mental models that will sharpen your thinking skills, and they explain how to develop your repertoire of models through a process of continuous learning.

In our guide to Volume 1, we present the nine models in three groups to show how they interrelate, and we suggest how you might use each model in daily life. We also expand on the history, applications, and real-world examples of the models.

In Think Like a Rocket Scientist, Ozan Varol describes nine strategies to help you dream bigger, make smarter decisions, take informed risks, and cultivate personal and professional success. Varol is a former rocket scientist who worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers before becoming a lawyer, professor, and public speaker. This guide explores Varol’s nine principles, compares them to those of behavioral experts like Daniel Kahneman and Philip Tetlock, and includes strategies for putting them into practice. Along the way, you’ll learn:

• How to solve problems like billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk
• Why you should treat your ideas like scientific hypotheses
• How to bounce back from failure and avoid complacency after success

What does it mean to be rational? Why is being rational important? How can you be a more rational person? In Rationality, Steven Pinker argues that rationality and reason are essential for improving our world and society, but that people often misunderstand them, acting irrationally even when they think they’re not. He examines how you can be more rational and make better decisions by improving your critical thinking skills and by understanding—and thus avoiding—the logical fallacies and cognitive blunders that people often fall victim to.

In our guide, we’ll explore Pinker’s definition of rationality, his argument for why it matters, and his advice on how you can think more rationally about your choices. We’ll also go over the key reasons why humans, despite our ingenuity, often think and behave so irrationally. Along the way, we’ll look at how other experts and thinkers have explored the topic and how they’ve added to the conversation.

Brilliant thinkers across all disciplines rely on mental models–recurring concepts and patterns that explain a wide array of situations. For example, physicists might use Newton’s law of inertia to predict that planets in motion will remain in motion, and biologists might rely on natural selection to explain the origin of the fight-or-flight response.

However, mental models aren’t only useful inside the ivory tower. Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann argue that using mental models can drastically elevate our everyday reasoning and decision-making skills. In Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models, they provide an array of mental models to improve our decision-making, in life and in business.

In this guide, we’ll first discuss Weinberg and McCann’s foundational mental models for general decision-making, then explore professional applications. We’ll consider strategies to implement these models and compare the authors’ discussion of mental models with other similar works.

Thinking is the key to improvement in all areas of your life—but what if it’s your thinking that needs to be improved? In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, award-winning educators Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird provide a guide for maximizing your thought process to achieve the greatest success possible in the classroom, the workplace, and your personal life.

In our guide, we’ll explore the five principles Burger and Starbird recommend for learning to think effectively, which they structure around five elements: earth, fire, air, water, and change. We’ll also examine how these principles relate to established theories of learning and educational psychology, and we’ll compare them to works from other authors on how to change your thinking and mindset to improve your life and achieve your goals.

In How Will You Measure Your Life? business consultant and Harvard professor Clay Christensen shows how economic theories that help businesses succeed can also help individuals make better life decisions. He presents theories and business case studies that show you pitfalls to avoid (such as marginal thinking and outsourcing your parenting), and also how to build a career that makes you happy, how to deepen your relationships with your spouse and children, and how to live with integrity. Together, they offer a philosophy for living a fulfilling life.

What does it mean to live well? So many life philosophies seek to answer this question that it can feel daunting to find one that resonates with you. In their 2023 book Life Worth Living, three Yale professors—Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz—break this question down to make it easier for you to answer. They offer bite-sized chunks of various life philosophies (including those of Confucius, Jesus, and the writer James Baldwin) to use as a springboard for building your own life philosophy.

In this guide, we’ll discuss four key components of a good life philosophy—spiritual, emotional, material, and moral welfare. Then, we’ll explore why it’s important to carefully consider your life philosophy. Finally, we’ll explain four methods for aligning your actions with your life philosophy. In our commentary, we’ll discuss additional life philosophies, research about what it means to live well, and practical tips for living your best life from other experts.

Brilliant thinkers across all disciplines rely on mental models–recurring concepts and patterns that explain a wide array of situations. For example, physicists might use Newton’s law of inertia to predict that planets in motion will remain in motion, and biologists might rely on natural selection to explain the origin of the fight-or-flight response.

However, mental models aren’t only useful inside the ivory tower. Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann argue that using mental models can drastically elevate our everyday reasoning and decision-making skills. In Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models, they provide an array of mental models to improve our decision-making, in life and in business.

In this guide, we’ll first discuss Weinberg and McCann’s foundational mental models for general decision-making, then explore professional applications. We’ll consider strategies to implement these models and compare the authors’ discussion of mental models with other similar works.

This book answers the simple but essential question: Why can’t we all get along?

Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains why people around the world, including liberals and conservatives in the United States, have different moral frameworks. He argues that moral judgments are emotional, not logical—they are based on stories rather than reason. Consequently, liberals and conservatives lack a common language, and reason-based arguments about morality are ineffective. This leads to political polarization.

The Righteous Mind explores how our divergent moralities evolved, why morality is about more than just fairness, and how we can counter our natural self-righteousness to decrease political divides.

Given the many formidable problems plaguing the world—like poverty, food insecurity, and climate change—it’s tempting to think that nobody can make a difference. But, according to philosopher and public intellectual William MacAskill, that line of thinking is mistaken. In Doing Good Better (2015), MacAskill argues that we can save hundreds of lives by maximizing the good we do for others. In particular, he defends effective altruism—the movement focused on doing the most good for others—and shows how to spend our time and money to best help those in need.

In this guide, we’ll first focus on the principles behind effective altruism. Then, we’ll see how to apply these principles in practice, from deciding which career to pursue to which problems to address and which charities to fund. Throughout this guide, we’ll also consider complementary perspectives from other effective altruists and provide actionable tips for implementing MacAskill’s strategies.

Tired of feeling like your career doesn’t matter? Dutch historian Rutger Bregman argues you’re not alone—and you don’t have to stay stuck. In Moral Ambition, Bregman explains that 25% of workers in wealthy countries believe their jobs are socially meaningless, while the world’s biggest problems, from climate change to global poverty, need talented people working on solutions. His answer is to restructure your career around creating a measurable impact on humanity’s greatest challenges.

Bregman argues that both traditional activism and effective altruism are failing to create real change—one is obsessed with moral purity, while the other is trapped in guilt-based motivation. His alternative combines strategic thinking about which problems to tackle with practical approaches to solving those problems, offering a roadmap for professionals who want their work to matter. Our guide explains Bregman’s philosophy, compares it with other forms of altruism, and explores cross-cultural perspectives on long-term thinking and sustainable change.

Thinking is the key to improvement in all areas of your life—but what if it’s your thinking that needs to be improved? In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, award-winning educators Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird provide a guide for maximizing your thought process to achieve the greatest success possible in the classroom, the workplace, and your personal life.

In our guide, we’ll explore the five principles Burger and Starbird recommend for learning to think effectively, which they structure around five elements: earth, fire, air, water, and change. We’ll also examine how these principles relate to established theories of learning and educational psychology, and we’ll compare them to works from other authors on how to change your thinking and mindset to improve your life and achieve your goals.