10 Mental Models for Learning Anything

A mental model is a general idea that can be used to explain many different phenomena. Supply and demand in economics, natural selection in biology, recursion in computer science, or proof by induction in mathematics — these models are everywhere once you know to look for them.

Just as understanding supply and demand helps you reason about economics problems, understanding mental models of learning will make it easier to think about learning problems.

Unfortunately, learning is rarely taught as a class on its own — meaning most of these mental models are known only to specialists. In this essay, I’d like to share the ten that have influenced me the most, along with references to dig deeper in case you’d like to know more.

1. Problem solving is search.

Herbert Simon and Allen Newell launched the study of problem solving with their landmark book, Human Problem Solving. In it, they argued that people solve problems by searching through a problem space.

A problem space is like a maze: you know where you are now, you’d know if you’ve reached the exit, but you don’t know how to get there. Along the way, you’re constrained in your movements by the maze’s walls.

Problem spaces can also be abstract. Solving a Rubik’s cube, for instance…