I had already heard the term "Supply and Demand" and how it
works, as a teenager. But this morning a read an article at
Quartz, by Michael Simmons, entitled: "How Warren Buffetts's
deputy became an "expert-generalist"
(https://qz.com/1179027/mental-models-how-warren-buffetts-billionaire-deputy-became-an-expert-generalist/)
A shame that public schools were not teaching the phrase
and actual examples of mental-models many years ago.
The article started out talking about Mr. Warren Buffet but
quickly changed subjects to Mr. Charlie Munger and his
work and concept of "Mental-Models." Charlie Munger has
written about mental models, but because he seems like a
silent business partner, I have, in the past, spent more time
listening to what Mr. Buffett had to say. As it turns out, Mr.
Charlie Munger is quite a knowledgable personality as well.
I did not know what a "Mental-Model" was, exactly until I
read this mornings article and followed a link or two. I learned
this morning that "Supply and Demand" is a "mental model."
Maybe I should have known that, since a mental-model is
defined as: "an explanation of someone's thought process
about how something works in the real world. it is a
representation of the surrounding world, the relationships
between it's various parts and a person's intuitive perception
about his or her own acts and their consequences. That
definition came from Wikipedia.
It's interesting that I have been learning "mental models"
for my entire life and nobody ever told me that those
ideas are called; "Mental-Models!" I wished that they all
would have been the best mental-models, but I am now
convinced that the public school system was to blame
for my not realizing or understand these things called
mental models.
Mental-Models needs to become a class or graduated
levels of courses required in public schools. Not as
a group of "electives." Every child or student needs to
learn "Mental-Models" as a required class, perhaps,
startiing with Mental Models 1 and through to Mental
Models 5, whatever it takes.
Now that I understand that "Supply and Demand" is
a mental model, and also that success requires that
a growing group of mental models is required, I heve
to ask, "Why don't we make this concept a requirement
in public schools?"
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are
very much needed, but first, learning that there are
mental-models that can help applying what young
people learn before the complicated classes should
help them even better because they will know that
there are specific ways and methods that can be
used that can be compared to other ways of thinking.
Sometimes, a person from a different country has
learned a better way of performing a specific task,
just because their mental-models have become
well suited to that task.