Topic
Mental Models
Every resource in the archive tagged with mental models.
50 resources
Letter2003 Letter to Shareholders
Jeff Bezos
Apr 2004 · 11 min read
Why long-term thinking is the mark of true ownership — owners are different from tenants.
EssayLabor and Capital Are Old Leverage
Naval Ravikant
Apr 2019 · 4 min read
Labor and capital are old leverage: both must be granted by others and are hard to scale.
EssaySeek Wealth, Not Money or Status
Naval Ravikant
Feb 2019 · 6 min read
The difference between wealth, money, and status — and why only wealth buys freedom.
EssayGuide to Career Planning, Part 1: Opportunity
Marc Andreessen
Sep 2007 · 11 min read
Why planning a career is pointless — and why seizing opportunities beats following a plan.
EssayStartups in 13 Sentences
Paul Graham
Feb 2009 · 6 min read
Thirteen principles for building a startup, from picking cofounders to understanding your users above all else.
EssayWhen to Do What You Love
Paul Graham
Sep 2024 · 7 min read
When to pursue work you love versus work that pays well depends on your ambitions and the actual odds of success in your chosen field.
EssayOrganic Startup Ideas
Paul Graham
Apr 2010 · 4 min read
The best startup ideas come from problems you encounter in your own life, not from trying to guess what others want.
VideoEric Schmidt on why most companies get strategy wrong
Eric Schmidt
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
Why strategy should start from what the world will look like in five years, not from your products.
VideoTobi Lutke explains what the VCs who passed on Shopify got wrong
Tobi Lütke
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
Friction between demand and supply hides the true size of markets, and software is uniquely equipped to reduce it.
VideoMarc Andreessen on the 5 personality traits of an innovator
Marc Andreessen
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
The five personality traits that separate true innovators from everyone else.
VideoSteve Jobs explains the importance of both thinking and doing
Steve Jobs
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
Why the people who change industries are thinkers and doers in one person.
VideoJeff Bezos’s two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Jeff Bezos
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
Why entrepreneurs shouldn't chase the hot thing — position for the wave, then wait.
EssayThe Struggle
Ben Horowitz
Jun 2012 · 10 min read
The Struggle is when you know you’re in over your head, but you can’t be replaced.
Letter2018 Letter to Shareholders
Jeff Bezos
Apr 2019 · 18 min read
Bezos arguing that risk-taking, not just revenue, must scale with company size.
Letter2016 Letter to Shareholders — Day 1
Jeff Bezos
Apr 2017 · 8 min read
Four practices to prevent organizational stagnation: customer obsession, rejecting proxies, embracing trends, and fast decision-making.
EssayFast
Patrick Collison
7 min read
Teams once built cities and planes in months; today the same projects take decades due to regulatory complexity.
EssayQuestions
Patrick Collison
16 min read
Why certain sectors see costs explode while others plummet, and whether progress itself has fundamentally slowed.
EssayAdvice
Patrick Collison
3 min read
Go deep on multiple things, make internet friends, read widely, and resist pressure to follow standard paths.
EssayHappiness Is a Skill
Naval Ravikant
Mar 2021 · 23 min read
Happiness is a skill you can develop by understanding desire and recognizing what's within your control.
EssayJudgment
Naval Ravikant
Apr 2019 · 6 min read
Why judgment becomes your most important asset once you have leverage.
EssayHow to Find Specific Knowledge
Naval Ravikant
Mar 2019 · 6 min read
Specific knowledge comes from pursuing your genuine curiosity and innate talents, not from school or following others.
EssayHow to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)
Naval Ravikant
Dec 2019 · 193 min read
Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep; money is how you transfer it; status is a zero-sum game you should avoid.
EssayUpside Risk
Sam Altman
2 min read
Power law returns mean angel investors should focus on upside risk—missing great deals—not downside protection.
EssayHow To Invest In Startups
Sam Altman
9 min read
How to succeed as a startup investor by accessing deals, picking great founders, and getting them to choose you.
EssayResearchers and Founders
Sam Altman
1 min read
The common traits that distinguish the best researchers and founders, from problem taste to persistence to an action bias.
EssayIdea Generation
Sam Altman
3 min read
How to get good at generating startup ideas through environment, tectonic shifts, and founder-company fit.
EssayProductivity
Sam Altman
10 min read
Choosing what to work on matters more than how fast you work, and small gains compound into massive results over time.
EssayHow To Be Successful
Sam Altman
15 min read
Outlier success comes from compounding yourself, self-belief, independent thinking, and willingness to fail repeatedly.
EssayLuck and the Entrepreneur
Marc Andreessen
Aug 2007 · 8 min read
Four distinct kinds of luck shape entrepreneurial success, each requiring different personality traits and behaviors to activate.
EssayAge and the Entrepreneur
Marc Andreessen
Aug 2007 · 11 min read
Andreessen's gloss on Simonton's finding that the 'quality ratio' of hits to misses stays roughly constant throughout a creative career.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 7: Why a startup's initial business plan matters
Marc Andreessen
Jul 2007 · 6 min read
Andreessen's punchline: the inventor of the phonograph initially filed it under 'speaking telegraph' and missed its true market for months.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 5: The Moby Dick theory of big companies
Marc Andreessen
Jun 2007 · 10 min read
How to navigate unpredictable dealings with large companies as a startup founder.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 4: The only thing that matters
Marc Andreessen
Jun 2007 · 10 min read
Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success, as formulated by Andreessen.
EssaySuperlinear Returns
Paul Graham
Oct 2023 · 19 min read
In most fields, small differences in performance create outsized differences in results because of exponential growth and thresholds.
EssayBefore the Startup
Paul Graham
Oct 2014 · 20 min read
Why your instincts about startups will mislead you, and what to trust instead.
EssayThe Top Idea in Your Mind
Paul Graham
Sep 2022 · 10 min read
Founders misjudge which problems matter most, but rapid focus on the vital few—measured weekly—accelerates everything.
EssayHow You Know
Paul Graham
May 2003 · 25 min read
Why startups beat incumbents in design wars: design-by-committee deliberately trades away upside to avoid downside.
EssayWhy It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice
Paul Graham
Apr 2004 · 9 min read
Hackers' disobedience and rule-breaking are essential to their brilliance, not flaws to suppress.
EssayLife Is Short
Paul Graham
Jan 2016 · 7 min read
Life is genuinely short, and the practical response is to eliminate bullshit and do things that matter.
EssayHow to Do What You Love
Paul Graham
Jan 2006 · 21 min read
Most people are taught that work must be unpleasant, but the most successful ones have learned to do what they genuinely love.
EssayBlack Swan Farming
Paul Graham
Sep 2012 · 9 min read
Startup investing concentrates returns in a few massive winners, which look like bad ideas until they succeed.
EssayMean People Fail
Paul Graham
Nov 2014 · 5 min read
Meanness correlates with startup failure because it costs you talent and prevents the transcendent thinking startups require.
EssayThe Risk of Discovery
Paul Graham
Jan 2017 · 1 min read
Smart people take risks that look crazy only in hindsight; Newton's work in alchemy and theology were reasonable bets in his time.
EssayHow to Disagree
Paul Graham
Mar 2008 · 7 min read
Disagreement quality follows a hierarchy from name-calling to refuting central points, and moving up makes you less mean and more effective.
EssayHow to Make Wealth
Paul Graham
May 2004 · 39 min read
Starting a startup is the most reliable way to compress your earning potential by working intensely for a few years instead of a lifetime.
EssayRelentlessly Resourceful
Paul Graham
Mar 2009 · 4 min read
The defining quality of a successful startup founder is relentless resourcefulness.
EssaySchlep Blindness
Paul Graham
Jan 2012 · 4 min read
Great startup ideas fail because our unconscious mind avoids problems requiring tedious, difficult work.
EssayCities and Ambition
Paul Graham
May 2008 · 16 min read
Where you live shapes your ambition more than you'd expect—each city broadcasts what to want.
EssayMaker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule
Paul Graham
Jul 2009 · 5 min read
Two incompatible ways to use time: the maker's schedule and the manager's schedule.
EssayHow to Get Startup Ideas
Paul Graham
Nov 2012 · 32 min read
The best startup ideas come from problems you have yourself, not from trying to think of startup ideas.