Mental Models Glossary

All the mental models covered in BNFK

Great must read mental model resources: https://fs.blog/mental-models/ and https://medium.com/@yegg/mental-models-i-find-repeatedly-useful-936f1cc405d

Edition #0

Growth Mindset - simply put, a growth mindset, is a way of thinking that says “hey, I’m always happy to, and seek to, learn new things”. 

Edition #1

First Principle Thinking - a way to break down complex problems to its simplest cause and then re-thinking a solution for it. In some ways its like doing a root cause analysis - by asking Why something happens till you reach the 'first' reason or root cause of why something happens. So go on and keep asking 'Wait, but Why!?'😎

Edition #2

Occam's Razor or Principle of Parsimony 🤯 🤯 -  A system of thinking proposed by English philosopher William of Ockhem sometime in the period circa 1310-1347 AD that "when presented with competing explanations about the same prediction (event or occurrence), one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions". The use of the word 'razor' is to highlight how one should look to 'cut out' complexity in favour of otherwise simple explanations. The word 'parsimony' means extreme unwillingness to use resources; also a reference to 'cut out'.  What's the key take away > Don't overthink things, 😎 sometimes "the simplest explanation is usually the right one".

Edition #3

Cost Benefit Analysis 😅 -  A way to take a decision, basis the BENEFIT and/or COST of taking that decision.  Say you have two choices of the decisions you can make.🤷 You then think about the cost of both options, and the benefits of both options. If the benefits of one option outweigh the costs, you pick that option and run with it 🏃  If you feel like getting confused, read more here.

Edition #4

Regret Minimisation Framework 🧘 -  Given what many are going through, we hope you find this a powerful framework for decision making.  As the name suggests, the Regret Minimisation Framework basically tells you to minimise regrets 🤷; and makes you ask yourself - "Will I regret doing this?" When faced with two choices, just think about which option you would regret more, and go with that. Minimise regrets. 🙏  Jeff Bezos (remember the founder of Amazon?) used this framework when deciding to start Amazon. 

Edition #5

Second Order Thinking 😇  -  When we take decisions, we tend to think like "Whats the worst that can happen?" 🤔 and in this thinking, usually only end up thinking of the first level of what can go wrong with that decision. Ignoring, many resulting and further follow-on impacts of that decision. 🚞 🚃 🚃   Second Order thinking states that one must think of the second or subsequent impacts of a decision. And hence urges one to not take decisions in haste, and only after due consideration. 🙂   Read more in this fabulous Farnam Street blog.

Edition #6

The Two Types Principle 🧐  -  This one is an original. I.e. a mental model thought up entirely by us 🤷.  There are two types of people in the world. Those that internalise 😇 and those that externalise 😞. Those that externalise, always blame an external factor for the occurrence of an event or result. While those that Internalise, know that the result of every event is in their control. 💪  So the next time you're wanting to get something done, and face a ton of external challenges, know that you and you alone can solve for, and impact, the result. So go ahead and dive in to solving it with all your might.🦸  We'll talk about another original model in our next edition, the One Step Model. 

Edition #7

One Step Model 🎢 - Sometimes when we are faced with a problem or challenge, they simply seem unsurmountable 🏔. Impossible to solve or achieve. It's then that you must apply the One Step Mental Model.  Breakdown the problem or challenge into multiple singular steps. And just focus on ONE STEP at a time in the sequence. Solve that, and then move to the next. And then the next, and next, and so on.🧘  You know a great example? Imagine how messy your room gets. When you look around, you wonder - how in the world will I ever clean this up. But then you pick one thing, and then another and then another, and possibly 50 items later and many long hours.. you'll find that you in-fact did clean up that messy room after all. Real world problems are quite the same. So next time, begin by just thinking of.. One Step! 🪜

Edition #8

Cognitive Bias 🧠 - Sometimes we tend to think that our view, on a topic or event, is the right view ✅. However this view may be biased by our own beliefs and incorrect information, and turn out to be entirely wrong ❌.  Therefore, whenever you have to give a point of view, pause and think through if you are basing your view on your belief, or on some hard data 📊 and factual information 📋? Doing so will make you have a stronger point of view, that can rarely be refuted. 

Edition #9

Root Cause Analysis 🌳 - Remember the One Step Model that tells us how to take each step at a time, when solving a problem? Well, think of Root Cause Analysis as the reverse of it 😂.   A Root Cause Analysis or RCA helps us identify the "root cause" of a problem or phenomenon 🌌. You start with the problem or phenomenon you're trying to understand, and ask "what is causing this". Once you find the first cause, you then ask "what causes that cause".. and then "whats causing the cause of the cause" 🤣🤣🤣 - basically keep asking Why till you reach the root cause.  Do an RCA of the Aurora lights with Mom or a big person at home:)

Edition #10

Proximate Cause 🕶 - Moving from Root Cause Analysis to Proximate Clause.  While root cause tries to focus on the initial or very first🥇reason for the cause of a problem, the Proximate Cause talks about the latest or most immediate reason that caused the problem. Read the ship 🚢 example here.  Proximate Cause thinking can help develop quick-fix ⚡️ solutions to a problem and drive focus when time is of the essence🔥. While solving the root cause may take a lot of time, solving the most immediate problem can help get things working again 🚀.  Discuss with Mom, Dad or a big person at home if they've ever had to solve a problem in this way.

Edition #11

Game Theory as a mental model 🕹 - Game Theory, in its simplest sense is a model that allows us to decide what course(s) of action to take, given the actions of others in a set scenario or 'game'.  Now, in reality it isn't that simple. Give this article a read and you'll see that its a way to figure out all the various solutions or paths to get you to a particular result or set of results. The idea therefore is to try and model every action anyone involved in the 'game' could take and how that action would change an action to eventually give a different result.  Arv says, we should make it our homework for this week.😬🥳😬 What say? If you like, spend time studying Game Theory and post in the comments of this newsletter as to what you make of it and how you think you can use it!?

Edition #12

Supply & Demand - A fundamental economic mental model 📈📉 - Supply and Demand is essentially a model that helps determine the price of goods and services. What it says is that the price of anything will vary till the time that demand = supply.  The moment demand increases and supply does not, there is likely to be an increase 📈 in price - because more people want something that is no longer available or in short supply - Ask Dad about HeMan 🏋️.  The moment supply increase and demand does not, there is likely to be a decrease 📉 in price - because there is more of something available than there are those wanting to buy it. Remember how couple of weeks ago Bitcoin was in meltdown mode?

Edition #13

Deserve then Desire - A mental model for savings 💰 & achievement - You know how we seem to always want to buy something new? Well next time you're eyeing that Play Station or XBOX 🎮 or dreaming about buying a Ferrari🏎! Pause. And then plan. And then DO. Desiring something is easy, but hard work that you need to do to get it is a whole different ball game. So instead of desiring, do; and then you'll soon find that you deserve what you desire. 🤯

Edition #14

Probabilistic Thinking 😱 - Remember First Principles Thinking and Second Order Thinking? Well say hello to Pro-ba-bi-lis-tic Thinking 🤯🤯.  In essence what it says is that if you are faced with an uncertain situation that could result in many different outcomes 👯‍♂️👯‍♂️👯‍♂️, don't just put your finger in the air 👆 and pick one random course of action. Instead, define the probability of likely outcomes!  You will find that putting in some thought on what can be more likely or less likely will help you arrive at a better decision. Giving you much peace of mind 💆‍♂️💆‍♂️💆‍♂️. Geek out here.

Edition # 15

Falling not Failing 💪 🦾 - A mental model for positive thinking. Every once in a while we think up a mental model all by ourselves, or with inspirations from people around us. Today's model is a result of a Dinner 🍲 chat with uncle Dennis. It goes like so..  There are many situations we may encounter in our day to day lives where we end up feeling unsuccessful, or worse, think that we 'failed' to achieve something.  The next time this happens, simply think of Failing as Falling. We all fall, don't we? What happens next? We get up and get going again. 🚀🚀

Edition # 16

Inversion as a Mental Model ⏳ - When faced with a decision or desire e.g. "I want to get rich"💰. We may tend to think of the solution in only one direction - e.g. How do I get rich? What 'inversion' tells us is to think of the solution starting from the Opposite, i.e. inverted, view e.g. How will I get poor? ⚡️  How does inverted thinking help you might wonder? Well say if you asked "How do I get rich?" you'd think of solutions like "Let me invest in some high risk stocks" 🤑 or "Lets try the lottery" 💸 - in the process you may end up making some big mistakes and actually end up becoming poorer than richer.  Whereas, if you ask the inverted question "How will I get Poor?" you will think of answers like "By spending more than I earn" 💵 or "By not working to earn" etc. - in the process you will have discovered some very important rules that you MUST avoid and hence by following these you'll probably end up becoming richer than poorer. 🤟   Read more at this Farnam Street Blog or better still buy these books.

Edition #17

Thought Experiment as a Mental Model ⏳ - Thought experiments basically tell you to use your "thinking" to look at the world in a different way. For a thought experiment 🧠, you don't need to run the actual experiment; instead, need to collect all the information you have about the situation and then "think" 💡 of all the possible outcomes you could have.  Therefore, thought experiments are useful when you have to determine outcomes of a situation when doing the actual experiment is not possible to conduct.  Let's take the England-Italy Euro 🇪🇺 2020 Finals. If asked to predict who would win, the actual experiment would not be possible would it? As the 'final' would have to be played before the 'final' 🤯. We therefore would have to analyse the data we have of the two teams and "think" about the outcomes. Sadly, all my "thought experiments" said England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 will win, but well 😅.

Edition #18

The Take a Break Model ⏳ - Ever felt like no matter how much you've tried you're simply unable to do something. Like think of a really good Mental Model🤣. Well in times like that.. Stop, Relax. Take a break.🍫  And then come back to doing it with a fresh mind. You'll suddenly find yourself thinking in a whole lot of new ways and will be done in no time ⏰.

Edition #19

Circle of Competence ⭕️ - Remember Warren Buffet, from Edition 8 inspiring business person? Well, we can thank him for this mental model. He once said it to his shareholders "You don't have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only must be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital."

What he basically means to say is, sometimes it's important to focus on things you know and be comfortable to call out "I don't know that" for e.g. say an investment advisor is trying to sell you an investment plan that you don't understand, its okay to walk away from it and not invest; than invest in something you don't understand. 😅

Similarly, I can solve a Rubik’s Cube rather well, and if I had to teach someone something I'd pick teaching them about solving the Rubik's cube🧊.. than say teaching them Art 🎨 🤷.

Edition #20

Solutions Oriented Mindset 🧠 - Boils down to one simple rule.. when faced with a problem, instead of complaining and feeling defeated 😔 about having faced it, we simply need to tune our mind to find a solution⚡️. A solution oriented mindset therefore believes that every obstacle has a solvable solution 🚀.

Edition #21

Dunbar's Number as Mental Model for Friendships?!👯 - It was great meeting old friends on our recent travels and also to learn about Dunbar's Number.

Dunbar's Number, proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, states that our brain can realistically maintain relationships with no more than 150 people 🤯🤯. It further goes on to say that you can maintain 2 special friendships, 5 close friends, and 15 good friends 😱! I'm left wondering "That's it"?!

We're not entirely sure you should apply a mental model when making friends; but it might just help you understand your friendships.. and hey next time atleast you'll know the reason why you lost touch with someone.

Edition #22

Effort > Everything Else!🏋️‍♀️ - So said someone on the internet and we thought it was a brilliant mental model too. Essentially in life, or school, you'll come across several situations where people around you may have same skill sets as you or perhaps far higher intelligence 🤖 than you. And you might think "how will I ever do well against this lot".

If this ever happens, just remember Effort > Everything Else. All you got to do is put in a whoooooooollleeee lot of Effort and you'll probably come up on top.🏔 

Edition #23

Seizing the Middle 🎯 -  Based on Chess, this mental model essentially tells you to focus, and keep great control, on the things that *really* matter.

You see, in chess ♜ its considered key to control the middle of the board, so as to maximise move possibilities. Whoever first gets in this position is able to control the game. It can sometimes also mean that focus must be kept on the middle than on the fringes i.e. on the not-so-important things 🤷.

Geek out here with help of Dad or a big person.

Edition #24

Just Do It ✅ -  Sometimes you'll have situations where it seems nearly impossible to figure out how to do something. Making an NFT for example 😆. Well next time you feel stuck. Just Do It. One step at a time.

A week ago we had no clue about how NFTs worked. We researched and researched and researched and tried and tried and tried and tested and tested and tested.. and voila.. we have NFTs!!!

Edition #25

Consumer 🛍 or Creator 🧑‍🎨 ? A mental model for life choices. A question we all must ask ourselves. Do we want to be Consumers or Creators?

If we are only consumers what happens? A consumer spends money and.. pays it.. to the Creator that created the product that was consumed 😱. Creators EARN 💰, Consumers BURN (SPEND) 💸. In essence, if we can, we must strive to be creators. 🔨🔨🔨

Edition #26

Creator 🛍 or Consumer 🧑‍🎨 ? A mental model for life choices. A question we all must ask ourselves. Do we want to be Creators or Consumers?

If we are only consumers what happens? A consumer spends money and.. pays it.. to the Creator that created the product that was consumed 😱. Creators EARN 💰 (even free Bitcoins if you pleases), Consumers BURN (SPEND) 💸. In essence, if we can, we must strive to be creators. 🔨🔨🔨 #repeated in light of our Twitter influencers story.

Edition #27

The Map 🗺 Is Not the Territory 🌎. Before you feel like this >> 🤯🤯🤯 lets breakdown what this mental model rally means. 

Whenever you make a Map, you must remember that while it might be a good representation of the reality, it isn't reality itself 😱. E.g. the Map of India is not India is it 🤷. Another key concept to remember is that a map represents "how things were at a particular point in time", and those things may have changed entirely now.

When trying to tackle a situation, you might tend to make a map of it in your mind i.e. think of the situation in a particular way, but remember that that map in your mind is not reality itself. And so your actions, must be based on reality that you encounter than on the "map" in your mind! 🚀

Read more here: https://fs.blog/2015/11/map-and-territory/

Edition #28

Lateral Thinking 🤔 - In several previous editions we've spoken of how one can 'logically' approach a problem.. but what if no logic seems to work?! Well.. think Laterally 😆. "Lateral thinking is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious." - Basically next time if no amount of logic works, think different, think Laterally :)

Edition #29

A promise is a promise 🤝 - If you've committed to, or promised something to someone, you ought to go on and get it done. Just like writing this Newsletter.. we promised we'd send it every week as a commitment to our readers.. as so we must. It's a simple yet very important Mental Model for success. When in doubt, remember, a promise is a promise. 😎

Edition #30

A bad carpenter blames his tools 🪚🛠🪛🗜 - Remember the Two Types Principle? About how there are two types of people in the world? Those that Externalise vs. those that Internalise? Well we have another similar model this week - A bad carpenter blames his tools.

A.k.a.. Always take responsibility for your own actions😎. Even if it may sometime seem like it is the tools' at fault, remember it is you who is controlling the tool🛠. Be the good carpenter, make those tools work to your advantage and get the job done right 🚀.

Edition #31

The Go Van Gogh Mental Model - As we've mentioned before, often we take inspiration from the world around us to bring you some interesting made-up-by-us models. This edition we bring you one from our recent trip to a super cool Van Gogh 👨‍🎨 VR show and have aptly named it the Go Van Gogh model 👇👇👇

Van Gogh 🖼 once said "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together" - now we're sure you remember the One Step Model where we talked about how we can solve any problem by solving it one step at a time. An extension of that is to know that in order to do great things, we need to start with small successes. So don't worry about doing great things.. do the tiny things right, and we're sure you'll do something great soon after. 🤗

Edition #32

F.A.I.L or 'First Attempt In Learning' Mental Model - Today's mental model comes from down under country Autralia. Specifically from Mrs Megan Hayes of Mudgeeraba Creek State School who recently won the the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

Much like our Falling not Failing, the F.A.I.L model encourages you to learn by first attempts, i.e. real world experiences. It's important to know that finding ways how something doesn't work or 'fails' ultimately leads you to learning how to get it right. So go on ahead and start learning from first attempts.

Edition #33

The Paint Your Dreams Model. Another one inspired by Van Gogh who said "I dream of painting, then I paint my dream".

Looking at all these companies and founders making mega sized companies, makes one wonder how did they do it? Well they probably first dreamt it, and then 'painted', aka created, their dream.

So go on.. dream. And go on and create that dream. #creator

Edition #34

Make Flowers Grow Model 🌷🌻. We're still not over our learnings from Van Gogh and here is yet another inspired mental model..

Van Gogh once said "Normality is a paved road. It’s comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow there”.

Essentially, we can all decide to take the easy road 🛣 in life, but where's the fun in that? Making tough choices, and sometimes taking a tougher path can be more rewarding. So go on, walk on a path that makes flowers grow. #creator

Edition #35

Bayes' Theorem 🤯: Named after English statistician Thomas Bayes, Bayes' Theorem "describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event".

Because we can use data of how things turned out previously.. given 'similar' set of conditions, we can predict the future 😱.. or more accurately, predict expected behaviour of future events.

For e.g. In the first Covid-19 wave, data showed that people over the age of 50 were more vulnerable. And because conditions remained the same with the 2nd and 3rd waves, the same result could be expected - and so, governments made rules to first inject older populations with the vaccines. ✅

Edition #36

Confirmation Bias ℹ️: Remember Cognitive Bias (link below)? Confirmation Bias is very very similar.. 

Essentially what it says is that as humans, we have a tendency to look for information that confirms what we already believe in; i.e. we look for information to confirm our bias.

In school or in business it's critical to not fall in this trap. You must in fact, look for information to disprove what you believe in 😱. Following this approach will make your own view stronger and way more thought through and factual.

Edition #37

Principal-Agent Problem: The Principal Agent problem is one businesses encounter very often. It essentially stems from the fact that the Principal (typically the owner of a business) and the Agent (typically a person that works for the business) have different incentives.. and often they work for their own interests, at the detriment of the other.

For e.g. a business that foresees its profits falling, may ask some of its employees to leave. Because if they stay, the businesses profits will decrease even more. This benefitted the business (Principal) but was detrimental to the employee (Agent).

Edition #38

The Resolutions Mental Model: Well its that time of the year, and so we have another made-by-us model.. and this one is inspired by our super smart sis/niece.

In order to 'do', we first must Resolve to do 🤯. Isn't it? Resolve = decide firmly on a course of action 😱. If applied well, setting resolutions is one of the greatest ways to achieving our goals. Sometimes just visualising or making our goals tangible e.g. writing them down, makes our goal seem much more real.. and hence achievable. So go on and write those resolutions. 🏃🏃🏃

Edition #39

The Persistence Mental Model - Not sure how many of you have written out those Resolutions 🤔, but for those that have.. say hello to Persistence - the act of following through a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.

Remember the first thing is showing up, the second is starting up and the third, and most important one, is staying up and at it. If you've set your mind to something, the only thing standing between you and achieving that goal is.. Persistence🤷. Your will and desire to GET IT DONE. Thats all. This 2022.. persist on. 🚀

Edition #40

The HODL Mental Model - Hold On for Dear Life 🤣. This might just be more applicable to mom or dad if they're invested in the stock markets, but you could learn some lessons too 🙂.

Many times life may throw a curve ball that seems almost impossible to dogdge. But so long as we've not taken a gamble and made the right choices, based on the right factors (and some intelligent mental models like here 😅), we can simply HOLD ON, and KEEP CALM. Let the storm pass and live on. 🚀

Edition #41

Hanlon's Razor - Like Occam's Razor that early readers may remember, Hanlon's Razor 🪒 helps us 'cut away' doubts we may have about human behaviour. Specifically, it states "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". 

Basically we may tend to assume, and blame someone else's bad intentions as the explanation of an outcome. For e.g. you may think "I raised my hand but the teacher didn't pick me, seems she doesn't like me"😔. But when seen through Hanlon's lens, the most likely answer was that she simply picked the person she saw first and not because of malice i.e. ill will towards you.🤷

Edition #42

Given all the ups and downs and mega swings all around.. this week's model is short and sweet and meant to remind us to not let influences of others impact our choices. Objectivity over Subjectivity.👇👇

Here goes >> Theory of Objectivity as a mental model >> When possible, we should always view situations, and take decisions, objectively 🤷. Genius. Without bias. And if possible with data and true information.🤯

While the above might be an oversimplification, for more context ask a big person to read and explain this ‘what not to do’ note on Farnam Street and also this from Wikipedia.

Edition #43

Contribute more than you Consume 💡 -  Given all the talk about inflation and energy consumption, this one is apt, and easy to follow. As humans and individuals we all must add back, and contribute, more than we consume. Simplifico. And whats important to be able to Contribute? Be a creator 🚀. And.. whats the holy grail aim of Fusion? Contribute more than it consumes. 😆😆😆

Edition #44

Into coding? Learn 'Rubber Ducking' 🐤 🦆! Or more popularly  known as 'Rubber Duck Debugging' - a sort of mental model used by programmers to help them find a problem that is causing their code to not work.

Basically what it asks them to do is explain their code out loud.. by.. talking to a rubber duck 🤷 😅 i.e. explain it in super simple terms, and in explaining it line by line in this simple way, while explaining it.. they usually hit eureka and find the solution themselves! Try it next time you're not able to solve that math problem :)

More here.

Edition #47

Seeing the Front - A War time mental model. 'One of the most valuable military tactics is the habit of “personally seeing the front” before making decisions' - Farnam Street.

We can already see results on not doing so in the war Russia is waging on Ukraine; many of its generals and Putin himself possibly never went to 'see the front' i.e. the streets, and courage of the people, of Ukraine. And as a result grossly underestimated what it would take to win the war.

While business is not war, a good analogy of this can be we must always "see the front" e.g. If you grow up to become the CEO of a retail store, you must speak to or meet your customers 'at the front' i.e. directly by visiting your physical retail stores to really get a feel of how things are on the ground.

More models on Military & War from Farnam Street here.

Edition #48

Asymmetric Warfare - As the name suggests "asymmetric" means two sides that are not equal or similar or symmetric. Like Russia and Ukraine - Russia is an immensely more powerful army than Ukraine's. 

So what is the concept of Asymmetric Warfare? When faced with such an asymmetric disadvantage (or advantage) be it at war or in business, one must adapt techniques to respond - just like how bravely the Ukrainian Army is using smart strategies to win the war on the streets. An example is Guerrilla Warfare - a method in which small bands of army personnel attack in small surprise bursts. The Technique is adapted and implemented as Guerrilla Marketing in business where smaller brands try and win over bigger brands by undertaking surprise or unexpected advertising campaigns.

More models on Military & War from Farnam Street here. Read about Guerrilla Marketing here.

Edition #49

Two Front War - As the name suggests "two front" war means having to fight the war in two different places. Say you're attacking a country from just the North, it might be easy for them to defend that one front. But say you asked a neighbouring country for help and they attacked from the South the country at War would have to split their resources and send them now to "two" fronts.

For e.g. along with Russia attacking Ukraine from the East they also got Belarus to attack them from the West. But remember Ukraine chose to fight a Guerrilla War instead of sending their armies to two fronts.

In business you could think of a softer use of "two fronts" as multichannel marketing 😅 - make your customer see your ads on "two fronts" - digital and television for example 😊!

More models on Military & War from Farnam Street here.

Edition #50

Counterinsurgency or Countering an Insurgency - An insurgency is an attempt to overthrow a legitimate government by political or military means. Like Russia's attempt to topple the Ukrainian Government.

While counterinsurgency is defined as "military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological and civic actions taken by a government to defeat insurgency." Like economic actions and sanctions being taken by western nations against Russia. Counterinsurgency means typically aim to win without bloodshed, through smarter, even covert i.e. spy stuff, means.

In business we can think of beating competition without bleeding our own cash, through smarter tactics that help weaken competition - like making a 10x better product that needs no marketing 😆.

Read a much more detailed account of Counterinsurgency as a mental model on Farnam Street’s blog here.

Edition #51

Mutually Assured Destruction - If you're wondering why the world hasn't done more to stop Russia's invasion of Ukraine then this mental model is likely to help.

As the name says when two opponents (say countries) become so strong that engaging in war is likely to ensure mutually assured destruction that they don't end up engaging in a war.

Give the nuclear weapons power of Russia and that of NATO, involvement by NATO could have created a mutually assured destruction scenario. In business too, opponents that can beat each other are unlikely to engage in practices that could damage both companies.

Read more about Mutually Assured destruction including its history on Farnam Street’s blog here.