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← People and their mental models

Henrik Karlsson's mental models

3 claims Henrik Karlsson made fit 3 mental models. Most often: Feedback loops, When a measure becomes a target, Your own biases. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Feedback loops

Shorten the loop between doing and finding out; whatever a loop rewards is what you become.

Others who think with this model

Charity MajorsDan ShipperJosh WaitzkinJulie ZhuoMax HodakNicole Forsgrenand 5 more

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The feedback loops a person allows to operate on them shape who they become to an unsettling degree.

  1. Henrik Karlsson Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland The lesson is that the feedback loops that we let work on ourselves shape us to an unsettling degree. First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz · 26 Aug 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsThe lesson is that the feedback loops that we let work on ourselves shape us to an unsettling degree.

    ↗First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz

    26 Aug 2026

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.

When a measure becomes a target

Reward a number and people, or machines, will find ways to move the number without the thing it measured (Goodhart's law).

Others who think with this model

Ajeya CotraLilian WengRyan GreenblattScott AlexanderZvi Mowshowitz

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A feedback loop that reinforces a behavior pulls it toward whatever improves the loop's own score.

  1. Henrik Karlsson Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland If there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score. First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz · 26 Aug 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsIf there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score.

    ↗First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz

    26 Aug 2026

Your own biases

Your mind jumps to conclusions and defends them; look for the evidence against you and use checklists.

Others who think with this model

Charlie MungerDaniel KahnemanRay DalioShane ParrishDerek SiversPatrick Collison

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People tend to assume their habitual practices achieve what they intend, even without evidence that they do.

  1. Henrik Karlsson Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland It is common to think that what we do achieves what we want it to achieve, even if there is no evidence for it. How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz · 22 Jun 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsIt is common to think that what we do achieves what we want it to achieve, even if there is no evidence for it.

    ↗How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz

    22 Jun 2026