Multi-Disciplinary Mental Models | Sankarsh Chanda | TEDxYouth@LPHS

The speaker, Sankers, founder of Sabot and Starder, discusses the importance and application of mental models. Having previously declined TEDx talks due to a lack of new material, he decided to share his experiences with mental models, which he defines as simple, sometimes oversimplified, explanations of how things work and why they do. These models shape one's perception of the world and can apply to situations, events, challenges, or activities. He credits discovering the structured nature of his intuitive problem-solving methods to reading Charlie Munger. Mental models, he emphasizes, are "approximately right" rather than precisely accurate, echoing philosopher K.V.Y. Threed's sentiment that it's better to be approximately right than exactly wrong. Sankers, a college dropout with no coding experience, runs technology and aerospace companies. To bridge his knowledge gaps when interacting with tech teams or "rocket scientists," he employs "first principle questioning." This involves repeatedly asking "why" – why a component is needed, why a trial is necessary, or why a specific approach is chosen. This curiosity and questioning allows him to understand and manage complex fields he doesn't specialize in. For decision-making, he shares a mental model to overcome indecision, which he previously combated by procrastinating. This model involves analyzing the worst-case scenario. If the consequences of a decision are reversible, one should proceed without excessive deliberation. This is particularly helpful for quick, reversible decisions and serves as a starting point for irreversible ones. He then addresses the mental model around money, noting that many adults, like children, perceive money as the ultimate goal – "I want to get rich." However, he argues that money is merely a tool, not a destination or purpose. Just as one buys bricks to build a home, money is a means to achieve a desired life. He urges clarity on what one truly wants to do with money and the direction it takes them, emphasizing that this requires introspection and pausing to think. He expresses concern about the erosion of cognition due to outsourcing thinking to AI tools. Sankers advocates for a multidisciplinary outlook, explaining that seemingly unrelated fields like stock markets and space sciences share fundamental principles. He points out that at a quantum level, the world operates probabilistically, while the classical world is more deterministic. Similarly, short-term stock market movements are probabilistic, while long-term trends are more deterministic. Understanding this interconnectedness across subjects, rather than viewing them as separate, is powerful. He cautions against misapplying one subject to another, citing the difficulty of pinpointing exact causes for economic events in complex systems. He also emphasizes the value of fiction, which he initially stopped reading, believing it was a waste of time. He realized that creative works, like movies or novels, can inspire solutions in unrelated fields, such as user interface design for mobile applications. Curiosity and exploration are key. Finally, he recommends using checklists. Writing down observations, missed details, things to remember, and things to forget helps with memory and provides a structured process. He frequently takes notes, even if he doesn't immediately revisit them, finding that they can be helpful years later. Sankers concludes by reiterating that mental models are how we perceive and structure our thoughts. He encourages listeners to define their relationship with money clearly and to explore various mental models beyond those he presented, recommending "Poor Charlie's Almanac" and "The Great Mental Models" by Shane Parrish as valuable resources.