Mental Models for Better Decision Making
A practical guide to essential mental models - first principles, inversion, second-order thinking, Occam's razor - and how to apply them to make consistently better decisions.
All Decision Making Articles
Welcome to the complete index of every article in our Decision Making collection on When Notes Fly. This page lists all 4 articles in the section, organized alphabetically for easy reference. Each piece is researched, written by hand, and grounded in academic sources, professional practice, or empirical data. Whether you are diving into Decision Making for the first time or returning to find a specific article, the index below gives you direct access to the full collection within Ideas.
If you are new to Decision Making, we recommend starting with the foundational explainers and definitions before moving on to specific case studies, applied frameworks, and deeper analytical pieces. Articles are written for thoughtful readers who want substance over summary, with clear explanations of how ideas connect, where they come from, and why they matter. Use this index as a navigational map: skim the titles, read the short summaries, and click through to the pieces that draw your interest. Each article also links to related material so you can follow a thread of ideas across our entire Ideas library.
Browse All Decision Making Articles
Pareto Principle
The 80/20 rule explained with real data and examples from business, productivity, relationships, and health. When the Pareto principle holds, when it breaks, and how to apply it without falling for the lazy version.
The 2-Minute Rule That Changed Millions of Lives
David Allen's GTD rule, James Clear's habit adaptation, BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits, and the action threshold research that explains why two minutes works. Thirty concrete examples, integration with task systems, why it fails, and compounding effects ac...
The Eisenhower Matrix: Prioritize Like a President
The Eisenhower matrix explained, with its actual history, its relationship to Stephen Covey's popularization, and the research on priority distortions. Why urgency hijacks attention, what the urgent-important distinction actually predicts, and a p...