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← People and their mental models

Ben Kuhn's mental models

2 claims Ben Kuhn made fit 2 mental models. Most often: Everything decays without maintenance, First principles. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Everything decays without maintenance

Institutions, code, cities and knowledge run down by default; keeping something alive is work that has to be paid for.

Others who think with this model

Adam MastroianniBrad DeLongCharles MarohnDavid CrawshawJensen HuangPieter Levelsand 1 more

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Neglecting maintenance of infrastructure over time makes it degrade faster and become costlier to repair later.

  1. Ben Kuhn Software engineer and writer; former CTO of Wave unmaintained infrastructure degrades more quickly, and is more expensive to fix in the long run. Some mistakes I made as a new managerbenkuhn.net · 23 Apr 2023All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsunmaintained infrastructure degrades more quickly, and is more expensive to fix in the long run.

    ↗Some mistakes I made as a new managerbenkuhn.net

    23 Apr 2023

First principles

Reason up from what is known to be true, not from what is usually done or said.

Others who think with this model

Tim UrbanElon MuskJanna LevinJeff DeanMartin Kleppmann

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Repeated vague platitudes without follow-up specifics signal weak first-principles thinking.

  1. Ben Kuhn Software engineer and writer; former CTO of Wave If they don't follow this up with a more specific, precise or nuanced claim, they may not be a strong first-principles thinker. How I build and run behavioral interviewsbenkuhn.net · 25 Feb 2024All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsIf they don't follow this up with a more specific, precise or nuanced claim, they may not be a strong first-principles thinker.

    ↗How I build and run behavioral interviewsbenkuhn.net

    25 Feb 2024