This whole piece was a great read and you earned my follow — well done!

One thing that I kept thinking about was that as you make the point that having more mental models is like having more tools to perceive, analyze, and act in this world, I find that there’s a breaking point in ones’ conception when they encounter something that directly challenges their mental model/personal construct. Say my personal construct tells me that I’m funny/witty enough to be a comedian, but I get booed off the stage when I perform. How does my personal construct adapt to that?

Your life’s direction takes shape according to how you respond to that moment of tension and dissonance. I personally find it hard but critical to be good at identifying how those breaking points fit in — are they seeds for a new mental model, are they blind spots in an existing model, or are they total invalidations of the current model? All three are valuable — you either get a new tool to add to the toolbox, a necessary update to the current model, or you cut bait with your sunk cost of your personal construct/mental model and get going on better paths.

I’d love to see more of your thoughts on that specific element, and I can’t wait to explore the Polymath Project more!