A Summary and Analysis of 10 Mental Models for Learning by Scott H. Young

While browsing YouTube today I came across a video on the achieved learner Scott Young’s channel that discussed 10 mental models that are useful to understand to help increase one's learning rate.

Over the last year I have taken on several ambitious learning tasks myself and reading about Scott Young informed me of some striking parallels between his journey and mine. For this reason, I believe that there is a wealth of knowledge and advice to be gleaned from his experience. This blog post intends to summarize each of those mental models to help cement them into my brain. Without further ado let’s jump into it.

Mental Model 1: Problem-Solving is Search

The first mental model describes problem-solving as a process of search. Scott asks the listener to imagine a problem as a maze. As the solver, we have our past knowledge and know where we are within this maze. Additionally, we know the problem we wish to solve, the metaphorical exit of this maze we find ourselves in. The process of navigating the maze toward the exit is the arch process we employ to solve the problem. There is a concept of problem space within any problem being solved. Within this space, a variety of approaches can be taken that can eventually solve the problem. Thus, solving a problem is an exploratory process in which one travels down these various paths within the problem space and generally assesses the viability of various approaches based on how close they are to the desired solution or exit of the maze.

Mental Model 2: Memory Strengthens by Retrieval

This mental model was the entire inspiration for this blog post. In writing about the ten mental models reviewed in the video, I am actively recalling what I learned and in turn, strengthening the memory I have of these models. This leads to a stronger and more permanent grasp of these models and helps me later on in my learning journey. Scott speaks about the benefits of retrieving information rather than reviewing it. He also refers to the Feynman method, in which, one proceeds sentence by sentence and writes an explanation of each sentence in their own words. This process forces deeper thinking and comprehension and leads to a stronger overall understanding of the subject. This is a method I look forward to implementing in my future learning.

Mental Model 3: Knowledge Grows Exponentially

This concept is pretty obvious once it’s been stated as such. Think back to grade school, the first time you were introduced to algebra. The concept of isolating and solving for a variable was relatively difficult. This process would be made more difficult if you lacked a sound understanding of basic arithmetic operations. In learning these operations the foundation is built upon which knowledge can be expanded. As our knowledge grows, that foundation expands and the square footage upon which we can gain and build new knowledge grows. This process of growth is exponential. Going from basic algebra to trigonometry and then to calculus is an example of this growth process. This is a deeply profound concept to me because it implies that the more you learn, the more quickly you can learn more. As an individual who finds learning to be an intoxicating process, this is a sensational revelation.

Mental Model 4: Creativity is Mostly Copying

This concept is one I had already considered through my exploration of generative models. These serve as an excellent demonstration of creativity through copying and repurposing existing knowledge. An LLM can produce a story about a polka-dotted pig flying through a warzone in a matter of seconds even though something as bizarre as this likely exists nowhere on the internet. This is accomplished through an understanding of individual components and a repurposing of those components into something new. As a result, most creative ideas are a Frankenstein of previous ideas. Much like evolution selects for desirable traits, new ideas often stem from a new combination of the most valuable previous ideas. An interesting concept to think about further is what the natural selection process looks like within the idea space and how do the mutations in existing ideas occur.

Mental Model 5: Skills are Specific

Scott begins this section by making three statements about the concept of transfer:

1. Practicing a skill will make you better at it
2. Practice at a task can help with similar tasks (tasks that have overlap in methods or knowledge)
3. Practice at one task helps little with unrelated tasks even if they seem to have broadly related knowledge such as “critical thinking”, “intelligence” or “memory”

Scott then goes on to explain that while practice on specific skills has a narrow breadth, by practicing a wide range of skills, one can greatly expand not only their breadth of abilities but also their intelligence. He uses the analogy of only knowing one word in a foreign language is not particularly useful, however, knowing a large number of words allows one to say many different things and compounds the usefulness of each word.

Mental Model 6: Bandwidth is Extremely Limited

In this section, Scott highlights the limits of humans' working memory bandwidth. He highlights a study that states that humans have a working memory bandwidth that allows for 4 inputs. This is described as the bottleneck through which all new knowledge must pass to find itself in long-term experience. He provides 4 tools that can be used to help with this bottleneck:

1. Problem-solving may be counterproductive for beginners. Often, novices benefit from seeing worked problems instead.
2. Materials should be designed to prevent the need to flip between pages of different parts of a diagram to understand the material.
3. Redundant information impedes learning.
4. Complex subjects can be best learned when first presented in parts.

Mental Model 7: Success is the Best Teacher

The core idea behind this section is that success is a better teacher than failure because often, the problem space is large and as a result, incorrect solutions far outnumber correct solutions. This means that finding an incorrect solution only provides us information on one thing that didn’t work while finding a successful solution can provide useful patterns to solve similar problems. Scott then talks about the 85% success rule. It is encouraged that when studying something new, one should aim for a success rate of 85%. Rates lower than this indicate that the problems are too far outside of one's grasp and as discussed in the previous section, complex problem solving can be counterproductive for beginners.

Mental Model 8: We Reason Through Examples

This section discusses the concept that we reason through a mental model. The example of: “All men are mortal, Socrates is a man. Socrates is therefore mortal” is used. It is also stated that the more mental models are needed to logically work through something, the more room for error there is and the more prone to error we become. The concept of our fluency to recall models being mistaken for the probability of an event model is also discussed. There are three main concepts derived from these ideas:

1. Learning is often faster through examples than through abstract descriptions.
2. To learn a general pattern we need many examples.
3. We should be careful when making broad generalizations based on a few examples (there are likely edge cases yet to be considered).

Mental Model 9: Knowledge Becomes Invisible With Practice

The concept discussed within this section is that through practice, many skills become almost subconscious in execution. When learning to play tennis, I was astutely aware of how I returned the ball each time. With time and practice, the knowledge of how to position my racket and the force with which to hit the ball became second nature. This internalization of skills is a double-edged sword, as we become better at something, the foundational knowledge may become buried within our overall understanding of the subject making it hard to teach to a newcomer because the foundational knowledge has been so internalized. This means that it’s harder to teach a complex subject such as algebra to a new learner as someone with significant experience because we may take things such as multiplication or division as given and this foundational knowledge may not be as firm in the new learner.

Mental Model 10: Relearning is Relatively Fast

Scott uses the idea of the memory of subjects as something that decays exponentially. After we learn new information it often leaves our memory relatively quickly, however, relearning this information is much faster when revisited. Imagine that you need a 36% understanding of a subject to complete a problem, if your knowledge has decayed to 34%, relearning that necessary 2% will be relatively quick. Understanding of subjects can therefore be relearned relatively quickly as there are usually multiple thresholds at which that understanding unlocks capabilities that may have been forgotten.

Final Thoughts

Overall this video was an interesting watch and I hope to implement these mental models into my learning process and see results as a consequence. I will also personally add a mental model of my own that I have followed recently that has helped me push myself to do difficult things:

Mental Model 11: The Time is Going to Pass

In preparing for a marathon I have faced the mental and physical battle of pushing myself to do difficult things. During this, I have been motivated by the thought that the time passes whether I am sitting on the couch or putting one foot in front of the other on the hot pavement. The only difference is where I will be at the end of that time. Knowing that there are benefits to be derived from the struggle and that the struggle, no matter how unpleasant, is temporary have served as large motivators to allow me to endure the present discomfort I feel while running. This is much the same with learning and any other form of self-growth. It is the act of investing time and energy into the time that is currently passing such that the future version of you will be better off for it.

I intend to put these mental models into use to shape myself into the future version I hope to be.