Over the past few months, I’ve developed a fascination with the concept of Mental Models & Frameworks. A mental model or framework is simply a way to process information.

One mental model that I co-developed with a close friend is the Simulation Framework, which suggests to look at every scene in your life as a simulation.

Different people live in different simulations. They see life differently because they process information differently. Thinking of those different experiences as “simulations” helps you take them less seriously. Take this example:

• Action X happens
• Person A thinks it’s the end of the world
• Person B laughs and moves on
• Person C gets slightly stressed but immediately starts drawing solutions

Each of these 3 people were exposed to the exact same information. They processed the information differently, leading to them almost living entirely different realities. They each had a different simulation.

One day, I was super engaged and focused in a particular task I was working on. I was happy and zen, and after hours of focus, I hold my phone and check Twitter out of force of habit. The first tweet that popped was for a gentleman who was fuming of anger at a political figure. The tweet held so many emotions, I felt each one of them. It had caps, exclamation marks, and cuss words; all the good stuff! I got consumed in that tweet for a long minute, then I got myself out of it thinking “woah…. what a simulation!”. This poor guy is living in a tormented state of mind. I wouldn’t wanna be him. I’m sure what he was saying had some truth (whether objective or subjective), but sheesh… What. A. Simulation.

I felt that because I was in a completely different simulation, and the contrast between his and mine was extremely high.

Have you ever been relaxed reading a book only to get an unexpected call from someone who wasn’t having a good day? That’s a contrast between your simulation and his/hers.

The Simulation Framework is the mother of all mental models and frameworks, because different mental models produce different simulations.

We ended up building so many pieces on top of the Simulation Framework. One of which was on relationships. Your strongest relationships are with those you have the most “simulation overlap” with. The people who share similar mental models and frameworks as you are those you’d relate to the most.

Nobody’s born with the perfect set of mental models. Those you have to develop and learn.

It’s been super exciting learning new mental models and applying them. One of the best writers on the topic is George Mack. I highly recommend you subscribe to his newsletter.