2. Building your mental model

As a baby you have no mental model, you simply react instantly to the world, much as animals do - if you are hungry, you cry, if you are tired you sleep and so on.

But slowly, slowly over the years you instinctively build up an understanding of how the world works in the form of a mental model.

The predictive power of this model lets you very easily understand what is coming up next when an event happens. For instance, sticking your finger in boiling water is not a good idea as your mental model tells you what will happen.

Note that this does not mean that the world becomes a completely predictable place.

Your mental model of the world is not complete because you have not experienced every nuance of living. A clever psychological example on the next page shows just how powerful your assumptions about the world can be.