A mental model is an abstraction about how someone or something works. A reflection of a real thing that happens in our minds. For example, my mental model about why trees’ branches go up instead of horizontally: Trees grow their branches up looking to maximize the sunlight they receive, so that they can get more energy from the sun to live. Sometimes, mental models are a wrongful explanation of how things work:…

I have always felt that there was something missing to classical physics. Over the years, I was able to pinpoint a number of things that created that sensation: The lack of “meta-discussion” about what really means to define and isolate a system for studying it. Why can’t I put a formula, or a strict declaration, on the system that is being defined? Why isn’t there a meta-language to describe the system, something that standarizes what am I putting inside and outside of the system, instead my teachers keep insisting in colloquial descriptions of bodies with weights and their positions?…

What do we need computers for? Communication with our loved ones Taking notes, organizing our thoughts and ideas Gathering data for ourselves or organizations we belong to Organizing collective action Finding out about what others think about ideas, products or services Getting services and products delivered All these are different variants of how to organize matter, energy, and information between us humans. But there’s a lot of clutter around these activities: in general, they are conducted through massive systems of information that mostly serve other purposes: in particular, the advertising economy.…