korrents

← People and their mental models

Adam Ward's mental models

2 claims Adam Ward made fit 2 mental models. Most often: Second-order thinking, Signalling. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Signalling

Much of what people do is a message about themselves, and a signal is believed only when it costs something to send.

Used by 15 others

For many companies, side-by-side real work is hard to beat as a hiring signal.

  1. Adam Ward Head of Talent at Cursor for a lot of companies, it's hard to think of a better way than you know, doing side-by-side real work to get those signals. The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com · 9 Aug 2026 · 0:50:48 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsfor a lot of companies, it's hard to think of a better way than you know, doing side-by-side real work to get those signals.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:50:48 plays here

    ↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com

    9 Aug 2026 · video · 1h 30m · spoken · machine transcript

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Second-order thinking

Ask "and then what?": follow a decision past its first effect to the ones that come after.

Used by 86 others

Chasing the highest offer tends to leave people unexcited about their work within six months.

  1. Adam Ward Head of Talent at Cursor And I think what you realize six months in is like that just becomes your new level of like comp expect you know, comp life. But you're you're not excited about the people you work with or the work you're doing. The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com · 9 Aug 2026 · 0:56:52 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsAnd I think what you realize six months in is like that just becomes your new level of like comp expect you know, comp life. But you're you're not excited about the people you work with or the work you're doing.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:56:52 plays here

    ↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com

    9 Aug 2026 · video · 1h 30m · spoken · machine transcript