How to learn mental models on the fly

I write this article before I will leave La Guardia Airport in New York to Omaha to visit Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaways annual general meeting. I cannot wait to see Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett in real life. One of the traits I admire the most in Berkshires success is to drill down a complex company valuation into a set of simple and crystal clear facts and relations.

Charlie Munger recommends to learn mental models. Mental models help to dissect complex problems into essential factors. When multiple factor work into the same direction, enforcing each other, a lollapaloosa happens, and driving an outcome.

Three books come to my mind when thinking about mental models the following books come to my mind.
Poor Charlies Almanack
Seeking Wisdom
Super Thinking

Weinbergs Mental Models
One of my favorite source are the mental models of Gabriel Weinberg. Before he wrote his super thinking book (mentioned above), he wrote this blog article on medium. It is one of my favorite source for mental models.

He orders the mental models by topics (physics, business, explaning, modeling, ...) and usefulness. Usefulness is, as Charlie Munger notes, the "80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly‑wise person."

I like to learn via flashcards. For that I use Anki Droid app. The app is awesome, especially while traveling or waiting in queues. You can find the Anki Droid app in the Google Play Store and the Anki App in the Apple Store. You find the flashcards for Weinbergs mental models here.

Next stop Omaha :-)

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