By era
Cross-era
8 entries
Activation Energy
Nothing changes until it clears its starting barrier, so the leverage is in lowering the barrier, not in pushing harder.
7 min
IdeologyAuthoritarianism
Rule by concentrated power with little political pluralism and weak accountability, but short of the total control of private life that totalitarianism seeks.
11 min
Mental modelCompounding
When returns are reinvested, growth builds on itself, producing an exponential curve that human intuition, tuned to straight lines, badly underestimates.
8 min
Mental modelIncentives
People do what they are rewarded for doing, so the reward you set, not the outcome you wanted, is what you will actually get.
8 min
Mental modelLeverage
A small, well-placed input that moves a load far larger than itself, magnifying the result in both directions.
8 min
IdeologyPlutocracy
Rule by the wealthy: a system in which money translates, directly or indirectly, into political power.
11 min
Mental modelRedundancy
Carry more capacity than the average day requires, because failure comes on the days that are not average.
8 min
Mental modelVia Negativa
Improve by subtraction: the surest gains often come from removing the harmful rather than adding the good.
8 min