Super Thinking

The Big Book of Mental Models

GABRIEL WEINBERG
[ AND ]

LAUREN McCANN

Copyright © 2019 by Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann

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 Image Credits

Figure 1: Adapted from The Avengers, dir. Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, 2012).

Figure 2: Adapted from Creative Commons image: Ghiles, “Somewhat noisy linear data fit to both a linear function and to a
polynomial of 10 degrees,” Wikimedia Commons, March  11, 2016, https://​commons​.wikimedia​.org/​wiki/​File:​Overfitted​
_Data​.png.

Figure 3: Headlines from August 31, 2015, on foxnews​.com and cnn​.com. Both early headlines have since been altered, though
the final stories from the following day are still available: “Atlanta-­Area Police Officer Shot after Responding to Wrong
Home,” Fox News, September  1, 2015, www​.foxnews​.com/​us/​atlanta​-­­area​-­­police​-­­officer​-­­shot​-­­after​-­­responding​-­­to​-­­wrong​
-­­home; Eliott C. McLaughlin and Holly Yan, “Police: Friendly Fire Likely Wounded Officer in Wrong-­House Encounter,”
CNN, September 1, 2015, www​.cnn​.com/​2015/​09/​01/​us/​georgia​-­­wrong​-­­house​-­­shooting/​index​.html.

Figure 4: Meme adapted from https://​78​.media​.tumblr​.com/​7f4ed380aadc01351b024959008f6e02/​tumblr​_mg3mhsUlOz1rhf11xo1​

_500​.png.

Figure 6: Adapted from National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, “Concentration of Health Spending Among
Highest Spenders,” infographic, 2013.

Figure 7: “Inertia -­Demotivational Poster,” Fake Posters, July 22, 2009, www​.fakeposters​.com/​posters/​inertia.

Figure 8: Adapted from a Creative Commons image. Birmingham Museums Trust, “Richard Trevithick’s 1802 steam
locomotive,” Wikimedia Commons, August  11, 2005, https://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​wiki/​Flywheel​#/​media/​File:​Thinktank​
_Birmingham​_​-­­​_Trevithick​_Locomotive​(1)​.jpg.

Figure 10: Randall Munroe, “Fuck Grapefruit,” XKCD, https://​xkcd​.com/​388.

Figure 12: Stephen Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (New York: Viking Books, 2011).

Figure 13: Philip A. Mackowiak, Steven S. Wasserman, and Myron M. Levine, “A Critical Appraisal of 98.6°F, the Upper Limit of
the Normal Body Temperature, and Other Legacies of Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich,” Journal of the American Medical
Association 268, no. 12 (September 1992), 1578–80.

Figure 14: U.S. Census Bureau, “HINC-­06. Income Distribution to $250,000 or More for Households,” www​.census​.gov/​data/​
tables/​time​-­­series/​demo/​income​-­­poverty/​cps​-­­hinc/​hinc​-­­06​.2016​.html.

Figure 17: Center for Disease Control, “Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2011–2014,” Vital
and Health Statistics series 3, no. 39 (August 2016).

Figure 18: Mark L. Berenson, David M. Levine, and Timothy C. Krehbiel, Basic Business Statistics: Concepts and Applications
(Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2006).

Figure 21: Randall Munroe, “Significant,” XKCD, https://​xkcd​.com/​882.

Figure 32: Adapted from an illustration by Christoph Janz, “Three more ways to build a $100 million business,” The Angel VC
(blog), November 4, 2014, https://​christophjanz​.blogspot​.com​/2014/​11/​three​-­­more​-­­ways​-­­to​-­­build​-­­100​-­­million​.html.