Mental-Models on Rafiul Alam

How to Think: 10 Mental Models for Sharper Reasoning

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most of education teaches you what to think. Almost none of it teaches you how to think.

Yet the quality of your thinking determines the quality of your decisions, and your decisions determine the trajectory of your life.

Here are 10 mental models that fundamentally change how you approach problems.

1. First Principles Thinking

Strip away assumptions. Reason from fundamental truths.

Most people think by analogy: “This is like that, so I’ll do what others did.” First principles thinking asks: “What do I know to be absolutely true? What can I build from there?”

Noticing Patterns Across Domains: The Secret to Innovation

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was stuck on a database indexing problem for three days.

The problem: Queries were slow. I’d tried different index strategies. Nothing worked.

Then I went rock climbing.

Completely unrelated to the database problem.

Or so I thought.

At the climbing gym, I watched an instructor teach a beginner:

Instructor: “Don’t try to solve the whole wall at once. Look for the next handhold. Then the next one. Chain them together.”

Unlearning What No Longer Works: The Hardest Part of Growth

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For six months, I wrote every SQL query like this:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = 123;

SELECT star. Get all the columns. Always.

My reasoning: “I might need all the data. Better to have it than query again.”

This worked fine for my bootcamp projects. Tables had 5 columns. Performance didn’t matter.

Then I joined a company with real production data.

My first code review:

Senior Engineer: “Why are you selecting all columns?”

Psychology Short Collection: Hidden Systems - Esoteric Methods

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Obscure methods and mental models that change how you think about thinking. Each one a tool most people never discover.

The Zettelkasten Method

Note-taking system that builds a “second brain.”

The origin: German sociologist Niklas Luhmann used it to write:

70 books
400+ academic articles
In 40 years

He said his productivity came from his Zettelkasten (slip-box).

How it works:

Fleeting notes: Capture ideas immediately
Literature notes: Summarize what you read (in your own words)
Permanent notes: One idea per note, written clearly
Link notes: Connect related ideas
Index: Entry points to chains of thought

The magic: Your notes become a thinking partner.

Psychology Short Collection: Mind Mechanics - Cognitive Rarities

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Small concepts that rewire how your brain works. Each one short enough to read in minutes, powerful enough to change everything.

Forcing Functions

Designing irreversible commitments that make failure impossible.

Burn the ships. Make public declarations. Put money on the line.

When Cortés arrived in Mexico in 1519, he burned his ships. His soldiers couldn’t retreat. They had to win or die.

Modern versions:

Tweet your goal publicly
Bet money you’ll finish
Sign a contract with financial penalties
Delete the escape route

The fancy term: Ulysses contracts - named after Odysseus who tied himself to the mast to resist the Sirens’ song.