19 published lessons with this tag.
A schema is a mental model that has been externalized, named, and structured so it can be examined, tested, and improved — turning invisible cognitive habit into visible cognitive infrastructure.
You already have schemas for everything — making them explicit is the work.
Your schemas determine what you notice and what you miss.
Many of your schemas were installed by culture family and education — not chosen by you.
You can examine your own mental models and evaluate whether they serve you.
No schema perfectly represents reality but some are more useful than others for a given purpose.
You cannot change a schema you cannot see. The moment you become aware of a schema operating in your thinking, you gain a degree of freedom you did not have before — the ability to evaluate it, adjust it, or replace it. Without awareness, the schema runs you. With awareness, you run it.
Every schema captures some details and loses others — resolution is a design choice.
Multiple schemas can apply to the same situation and the one that wins shapes your response.
The schemas you apply automatically without thinking are the hardest to examine.
The words you habitually use reveal and reinforce the schemas you operate from.
Established schemas persist even when contradicted by evidence.
The discomfort of a failing schema is data not damage.
You have both rigorous explicit schemas and fuzzy gut-feeling schemas — both matter.
A schema that works in one context may fail entirely in another.
Teams that share mental models coordinate better than teams that do not.
Understanding how others structure their thinking is as important as structuring your own.
Operating on a flawed schema produces systematically flawed decisions.
Everything that follows builds on your ability to create inspect and improve schemas.