Mental Models
Charlie Munger Mental Models (A partial list of some Mental Models used by Charlie Munger, compiled from many sources by Tren Griffin)
Business:
- Moat (Economic)
Five Forces - Brand Wikipedia
Accounting:
- Financial Statement Wikipedia and Financial Statement Analysis Wikipedia
- Balance Sheet Wikipedia and Balance Sheet Analysis Wikipedia
- Cash Flow Statement Wikipedia
- Income Statement Wikipedia
- Depreciation Wikipedia
- Double-Entry (Bookkeeping System) Wikipedia
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Wikipedia
- Sunk Cost (Fallacy) Wikipedia
Economics:
- Agency Problem (Principal Agent Problem) Wikipedia
- Asymmetric Information Wikipedia
- Behavioral Economics Wikipedia
- Cumulative Advantage (Matthew Effect) Wikipedia
- Comparative Advantage Wikipedia
- Competitive Advantage Wikipedia Creative Destruction
- Diminishing Utility (Marginal Utility) Wikipedia
- Economies of Scale Wikipedia
- Elasticity Wikipedia
- Externality/Externalities Wikipedia
- Market(s) Wikipedia
- Marginal Cost Wikipedia
- Marginal Utility Wikipedia
- Monopoly Wikipedia and Oligopoly Wikipedia
- Network Effect(s) Wikipedia
- Opportunity Cost Wikipedia
- Price Discrimination Wikipedia
- Prisoner's Dilemma Wikipedia
- Public and Private Goods (Strategy for Information Markets/Features of Goods) Wikipedia
Specialization
- Supply and Demand Wikipedia
- Switching Costs/Barriers Wikipedia
- Transaction Cost(s) Wikipedia
- Tragedy of the Commons Wikipedia
- Time Value of Money Wikipedia
- Utility Wikipedia
Management Science:
- Occam's Razor Wikipedia
- Parkinson's Law Wikipedia
Process versus Outcome
Computer Science:
- Abstractions
- Algorithms
- If-statements
- Recursion
Engineering:
- Breakpoints
- Feedback loops
- Margin of Safety
- Redundancy
Mathematics, Probability and Statistics:
- Agent Based Models
- Bayes Theorem
- Central Limit Theorem
- Complex Adaptive Systems Wikipedia
- Correlation versus Causation
- Combinations
- Compounding
- Decision Trees
- Inversion
- Kelly Optimization Model
- Law of Large Numbers
- Mean, Median, Mode
- Normal Distribution
- Permutations
- Power Law Wikipedia
- Regression Analysis
- Return to the Mean
- Scaling
- Sensitivity Analysis
Law:
- Burden of Proof
- Common law
- Due Process
- Duty of care
- Good Faith
- Negligence
- Presumption of Innocence
- Reasonable doubt
Philosophy, Literature and Rhetoric:
- Metaphors
- Similes
- Abduction
- Pragmatism
- Realism
- Reductionism
Charlie Munger's 18 Biases
Charlie Munger Investing Bias of the Day via Tren Griffin
- Charlie Munger on Human Misjudgement
- Action Bias
- Availability Bias and Availability Heuristic (Bias) Wikipedia
- Authority Bias
- Chemical Dependency Bias
- Confirmation Bias and Confirmation Bias Wikipedia
- Consistency Bias
- Control Bias
- Denial Bias
- Envy Bias
- "If your way of making a living depends on X...
- Incentive Caused Bias
- Liking Bias
- Loss Aversion
- Man with a Hammer Bias
- Over Confidence Bias
- Self-Serving Bias and Self-Serving Bias Wikipedia
- Social Proof Bias
- Stress Induced Bias
- Want it Now Bias
A16Z Metrics
Business and Financial Metrics
- 1 Bookings vs. Revenue (GAAP) (Letters of intent and verbal agreements are neither revenue nor bookings.)
- 2 Recurring Revenue vs. Total Revenue (Product (Recurring) versus Service), ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), ARR per customer, MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) Wikipedia))
- 3 Gross Profit Wikipedia
- 4 Total Contract Value (TCV) vs. Annual Contract Value (ACV) (What is the size? Is it growing?)
- 5 Customer Lifetime Value (LTV/Life Time Value) Wikipedia (Contribution margin per customer x Average Lifespan of Customer) (See also Bill Gurley)
- 6 Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) vs. Revenue
- 7 Unearned or Deferred Revenue … and Billings
- 8 CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) Wikipedia … Blended vs. Paid, Organic vs. Inorganic
Product and Engagement Metrics
- 9 Active Users
- 10 Month-on-month (MoM) growth, CMGR
- 11 Churn Rate Wikipedia
- 12 Burn Rate Wikipedia (Monthly cash burn, Net burn, Gross burn) (See also Fred Wilson)
- 13 Downloads (Vanity Metrics) (Engagement, ideally expressed as cohort retention on metrics that matter for that business — for example, DAU (daily active users), MAU (monthly active users), photos shared, photos viewed, and so on.)
Presenting Metrics Generally
- 14 Cumulative Charts (vs. Growth Metrics)
- 15 Chart Tricks
- 16 Order of Operations
Business and Financial Metrics
- Total Addressable Market (TAM) (Bottom Up/Top Down)
- ARR (annual recurring revenue) ≠ Annual Run Rate
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
- Gross Margins
- Sell-Through Rate & Inventory Turns (Also: “close rate”, “conversion rate”, and “success rate”)
Economic and Other Defining Qualities
- Network Effects
- Virality (viral coefficient or k-value)
- Economies of Scale (“Scale”)
Other Product and Engagement Metrics
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Cohort Analysis
- Registered Users
- Active Users (MAUs (monthly active users), WAUs (weekly active users), DAUs (daily active users), and HAUs (hourly active users)), (uniques, visits, time on site, repeat visits)
- Sources of Traffic (direct traffic, organic traffic, (SEO, SEM)
- Customer Concentration Risk
Presenting Metrics Generally
- Truncating the Y-Axis
- Cumulative Charts, Again
Clay Christensen: The Church of Finance, “Thou shalt measure success by… “
- Return on Net Assets (RONA) Wikipedia
- Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) Wikipedia
- Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Wikipedia
- Earnings Per Share (EPS) Wikipedia
- Gross Margin (Percentage) Wikipedia
- Economic Value Added (EVA) Wikipedia
- Marginal Cost/Marginal Revenue
- Debt/Equity
- Net Present Value (NPV) Wikipedia
- Revenue (Net Income) Per Employee Wikipedia
Ellen Chisa HBS Fin2
- Weighted Average Cost of Capital Wikipedia
- Discounted Cash Flow Wikipedia
- Adjusted Present Value Wikipedia
- Multiples
- Bonds
- Collar Wikipedia
More Models
- Adverse Selection Wikipedia versus Positive Selection Wikipedia
- Counterfactual Wikipedia
- Critical Mass (Disambiguation) Wikipedia
- Evolution Wikipedia
- Feedback Wikipedia
- First Principles Wikipedia versus Analogy Wikipedia
- Inertia Wikipedia
- Jacobian Inverse Wikipedia
- Local Maxima Wikipedia
- Marginal Utility Wikipedia
- Mean Reversion Wikipedia
- Optionality
- Pareto Principle Wikipedia
- Reconciliation Wikipedia
- Reflexivity Wikipedia
Miscellaneous Metrics
General
- Commodity Wikipedia
- Consumer Surplus Wikipedia and Economic Surplus Wikipedia
- External Pricing Wikipedia
- Globalization Wikipedia
- Gross Domestic Product Wikipedia
- Inflation Wikipedia
- Inflection Point Wikipedia
- Laffer Curve Wikipedia
- Pricing Power
- Purchasing Price Parity Wikipedia
- Quantitative Easing Wikipedia
- Zero Sum Game Wikipedia
- Two Sided Marketplace Wikipedia
Statements
Return
- Return on investment Wikipedia
- Rate of Return Wikipedia
- Return on Assets Wikipedia
- Return on Capital Wikipedia
- Return on Equity Wikipedia
Accounting
- Capital Expenditure Wikipedia
- Compounding Interest Wikipedia
- Cost of Capital Wikipedia
- EBIDTA Wikipedia
- Operating Expense Wikipedia
- Year over Year
Financial
Time Value of Money
- Adjusted Present Value Wikipedia
- Discounted Cash Flow Wikipedia
- Discounting Wikipedia
- Economic Value Added Wikipedia
- Future Value Wikipedia
- Internal Rate of Return Wikipedia
- Market Value Added Wikipedia
- Net Present Value Wikipedia
- Present Value Wikipedia
- Time Value of Money Wikipedia
Working Capital Management
- Cash Conversion Cycle Wikipedia
- Discounts and Allowances Wikipedia
- Economic Order Quantity Wikipedia
- Economic Value Added Wikipedia
- Factoring (finance) Wikipedia
- Just-in-Time Manufacturing Wikipedia
- Lean manufacturing Wikipedia
- Working Capital Wikipedia
Analysis
- Analysis Wikipedia
- Business Analysis Wikipedia
- Financial Analysis Wikipedia
- Financial Analyst Wikipedia
- Market Analysis Wikipedia
- Quantitative Analyst Wikipedia
- Systems Analysis Wikipedia
Business Model
Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship
- Early Adopter Wikipedia
- Hockey Stick Graph (Growth Curve) Wikipedia
- Intrapreneurship Wikipedia
- Jugaad (Innovation) Wikipedia
- Karass
- Reverse Innovation Wikipedia
- Reverse Mentoring
- Shoshin Wikipedia
- Synergy Wikipedia
- Tacit Knowledge Wikipedia
Ops
Programming
Office
Topics
- Wikipedia Portal: Business and Economics
- Accounting Wikipedia
- Finance Wikipedia
- Financial Risk Wikipedia
- Business Administration Wikipedia
- Corporate Finance Wikipedia
- Investment Banking Wikipedia
- Financial Market Wikipedia
- Corporate Law Wikipedia
- Tax Wikipedia
Laws, Theories, Logic
- List of Cognitive Biases Wikipedia
- List of Memory Biases Wikipedia
- List of Laws Wikipedia
- Baumol's Cost Disease Wikipedia
- Benford's Law Wikipedia
- Betteridge Law of Headlines Wikipedia
- Blue Sky Thinking
- Brook's Law (Software Development) Wikipedia
- Clark's Three Laws Wikipedia
- Coase Theorem Wikipedia
- Conway's Law (Software Development) Wikipedia
- Diminishing Returns Wikipedia
- Dunning–Kruger Effect Wikipedia
- Echo Chamber Wikipedia
- Ephemeralization Wikipedia
- Eroom's Law
- False Dilemma (Dichotomy) Wikipedia
- False Positive Wikipedia
- Faustian Bargain Wikipedia
- First Mover Advantage Wikipedia
- First Principle Wikipedia
- Flynn Effect Wikipedia
- Forcing Function Wikipedia
- Free Rider Problem Wikipedia
- Friendship Paradox Wikipedia
- God's Algorithm Wikipedia
- Godwin's Law Wikipedia
- Goodhart's Law Wikipedia
- Good Old Days Wikipedia
- Gordian Knot Wikipedia
- Groupthink Wikipedia
- Herd Behavior Wikipedia
- Herd Mentality Wikipedia and Ochlocracy Wikipedia
- Hipster Paradox can't believe I'm referencing the Daily Mail here
- Hotelling's Rule Wikipedia
- If By Whiskey Wikipedia
- Indicator of Compromise Wikipedia
- Information Paradox (Arrow) Wikipedia
- Is-Ought Problem Wikipedia
- Gall's Law Wikipedia
- Joy's Law Wikipedia
- Law of the Instrument Wikipedia
- Lindy Effect Wikipedia
- Magical Thinking Wikipedia
- Memory Hole Wikipedia
- Meritocracy Wikipedia
- Metcalf's Law Wikipedia
- Minority Influence Wikipedia
- Moore's Law Wikipedia
- Murphy's Law Wikipedia
- No True Scotsman Wikipedia
- Optimism Bias Wikipedia
- Pareidolia Wikipedia
- Parkinson's Law of Triviality (Bikeshedding) Wikipedia
- Pascal's Wager Wikipedia
- Pattern Matching Wikipedia
- Peter Principle Wikipedia
- Peto's Paradox Wikipedia
- Poe's Law Wikipedia
- Precautionary Principle Wikipedia
- Prisoner's Dilemma Wikipedia
- Resource Curse Wikipedia
- Rock's Law (or Moore's Second Law) Wikipedia
- Rube Goldberg Machine Wikipedia
- Satisficing (versus Optimizing) Wikipedia
- Selection Bias Wikipedia
- Shannon–Hartley Theorem Wikipedia
- Silent Majority Wikipedia
- Simpson's Paradox Wikipedia
- Ski Rental Problem Wikipedia
- Smiling Curve Wikipedia
- Stein's Law Wikipedia
- Stockdale Paradox Wikipedia
- Streetlight Effect Wikipedia
- Survivorship Bias Wikipedia
- Sisyphus (Sisyphean Task) Wikipedia
- The Babe Ruth Effect via Chris Dixon
- The Golden Rule Wikipedia
- The Paradox of Choice Wikipedia
- The Pie Fallacy
- Tiebout Model Wikipedia
- Unintended Consequences (The Law of) Wikipedia
Network Science, Social Network, Systems Science
- Network Wikipedia
- Network Science Series Wikipedia
- Network Theory Series Wikipedia
- Social Graph Wikipedia
- Social Network Wikipedia
- Social Network Analysis Wikipedia
- Social Network Analysis Software Wikipedia
- System Wikipedia
- Systems Science Wikipedia
- Systems Theory Wikipedia
- Systems Thinking Wikipedia
Interesting
- Chaos Wikipedia
- Chaos Theory Wikipedia
- Complexity Theory Wikipedia
- Collective Intelligence Wikipedia and Collective Intelligence Category Wikipedia
- Darwinism Wikipedia
- Diffusion of Innovations Wikipedia
- Emergence Wikipedia
- Slime Mold Wikipedia
- Social Proof Wikipedia
- Social Theory Wikipedia
- Theory of Mind Wikipedia (and Secondary Theory)
- Wisdom of the Crowd Wikipedia
Probability and Statistics
Graph and Schema- General (See also Facebook Open Graph)