Harvard professor Barbara Minto spent years studying the most successful consultants at McKinsey – the prestigious consulting firm that advises the world’s largest corporations. She wanted to understand why some consultants become legendary problem solvers while others stagnate despite enormous experience.
The discovery was both fascinating and alarming: the longer consultants had been in the industry, the faster they found solutions for familiar types of problems. But at the same time, they became blind to innovative approaches coming from completely different fields. Top banking experts didn’t see solutions coming from technology. IT experts missed insights from psychology. Financial analysts ignored patterns from biology. Minto realized this was a broader phenomenon – the more we become experts in our field, the more our minds “close” to external influences. We enter a tunnel and our vision narrows. We’re in the dark about everything except the light of our own experience. This is the crystallized knowledge trap.
Psychologists have discovered that our minds function using two types of intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is like a perfectly organized library: everything we’ve ever learned – every experience and skill – sits arranged on the shelves of our mind, ready for use when we need it. This library grows richer over the years and makes us increasingly efficient at solving problems we already know.
Fluid intelligence is what gives life to that library – the ability to use existing knowledge not just reproductively, but to combine it in new, unexpected ways. It (re)creates bridges between different shelves of our mental library and enables us to see connections that others miss.
The problem develops over time. The more we fill the shelves of our crystallized library with specialized knowledge from one field – the harder it becomes to be flexible and open to the benefits that fluid intelligence brings. We become trapped in the experience of our own success, relying on tools and methods that previously brought us results, even when facing completely new challenges.
We become trapped in the experience of our own success, relying on tools and methods that previously brought us results, even when facing completely new challenges.
Mental Models – A Powerful Tool for Connecting Different Disciplines
Mental models are simplified explanations of how things work – but don’t forget that “simplified” is the key word here. These are mental maps that consciously highlight key information while ignoring irrelevant details, just as an ordinary map shows roads and important objects, not every stone on the path. Charlie Munger, legendary investor and Warren Buffett’s partner, explained this elegantly: “If you want to be a good thinker, you must develop a mind that can jump jurisdictional boundaries. You don’t have to know everything from every discipline – just take the best big ideas from all of them and learn how to combine them.”
The power of mental models lies in their practical application. When we see that someone doesn’t respond to messages, we automatically choose one of several mental models: “people are rude and don’t respect my time” or “maybe they’re busy and have more important priorities.” The first model frustrates us and drives us toward confrontation. The second makes us reasonable, patient, and drives us toward empathy. Same situation, completely different emotional and action outcome – all because of the mental model we choose.
The problem is that we take most mental models from our narrow professional field and from our previous (well-worn) paths of experience. A manager uses business frameworks, a psychologist relies on behavioral models, an engineer sees everything through the lens of systems and processes. But some of the most powerful mental models come from seemingly completely unrelated areas. When I say in my work that depth (expertise and professional knowledge) is important for building reputation and influence in our field, but there’s no further growth without breadth (looking at the world beyond the narrow view of our profession) – I mean exactly this.
Through depth we can become successful, but only with breadth can we remain successful.
There’s one quote that has always fascinated me, coming from the world of physics: “Only WORK maintains ORDER.” At first glance, it sounds like advice for a housewife. But when we dive deeper, we discover a universal truth about how everything works – from our habits to the most complex organizations.
Thermodynamics: Why Everything “Falls Apart” Without Work
In physics, the second law of thermodynamics is perhaps the most elegant and saddest law of the universe at the same time. It states that entropy (a measure of disorder) always increases in any closed system. In other words, the universe naturally tends toward chaos. A child’s room won’t clean itself (though our little ones secretly wish it would) – energy and work are needed to maintain order. Stars burn out, structures crumble, ice melts into water, and even love fades.
I always tell my clients that only WORK maintains ORDER. Idleness creates disorder. This simple sentence hides profound wisdom: entropy is the universe’s tax on time. Everything that matters, everything that’s beautifully organized, everything that functions – must be actively maintained or it will naturally return to chaos. Relationships, harmony, team spirit… everything requires work. And we, just like our kids, think that once an organized system is in place – it stays organized forever.
Only work maintains order.
Once I shared my thoughts with Ana about why her business was “falling apart” despite an excellent initial strategy.
“Your company is like your desk – without constant, conscious investment of energy in maintaining systems, processes, team culture, communication flows – everything naturally returns to chaos.” Ana had a brilliant startup that initially functioned like a Swiss watch. She had a clear vision, excellent team, good strategy. But after the initial momentum, things began to complicate seemingly without reason. “I thought that once I set up a good system, everything would run by itself,” she admitted frustratedly.
That was her aha! moment. Success isn’t a destination you reach and stay there forever – it’s a continuous process of maintaining order against the natural tendency toward chaos. Ana didn’t understand that a successful business requires conscious and continuous work on people, processes, culture – just as a tidy desk requires regular cleaning. Since then, Ana regularly “works” on her business. She invests energy in regular one-on-one conversations with the team, in improving processes, in strengthening culture. She doesn’t wait for problems to accumulate or solve themselves – she preventively invests energy. Her company not only survived but began to grow exponentially, because she learned to work with, not against natural laws. Now she doesn’t take success (and order) for granted, works for order and understands why she does it.
At this point it’s reasonable to ask – what about self-regulating systems? For example, in my book “Being Successful in Business” I wrote about ants. They build complex colonies without central management. Then, our body functions without conscious control – right? Do they violate the law of entropy? No – they defeat it through continuous work. An ant never rests, the heart never stops beating. “Self-regulating” doesn’t mean “free” – it means energy is built into the system, not that energy is unnecessary.
The same applies to personal habits. Why do you think you automatically return to old behavioral patterns? Because that’s the natural state – entropy in action. New habits require continuous energy (and conscious work!) for maintenance, until they become part of your “new nature” that maintains itself through repetition.
Inertia: Why the Beginning is Always the Hardest
Inertia is perhaps the most fundamental law of nature and the deepest explanation for why change is so difficult. Newton’s first law states that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Inertia is the universe’s stubborn resistance to any change.
The physical logic is simple: the more massive something is, the more it resists change. A feather moves easily with the slightest breeze because it has minimal mass. We must push a stone with great force because it has enormous mass. That’s why more energy is needed to change a large company (and sluggish systems) than a small startup or entrepreneurial shop (though the latter don’t understand this advantage and don’t use it dedicatedly).
But inertia isn’t just a physical phenomenon – it’s a deep metaphor for understanding habits, beliefs, organizational cultures, and our inherent resistance to change. The longer we hold a belief or habit, the more “massive” it becomes and the greater force needed to change it. Our mental inertia is why it’s easier to continue with familiar patterns than experiment with new ones.
Stefan, director and owner of an IT company, had been trying for years to introduce agile methodologies in his organization of 200 people. Every few months he would launch a new change initiative – new software, new procedures, new training. But nothing stuck. After initial enthusiasm, everything would return to the old ways. “It’s like pushing a huge stone uphill,” he complained. “It seems like the organization has its own will that resists any change.”
When we discussed inertia, everything became clearer: “An organization is like a massive body – the larger and older it is, the more it resists change. It’s not because our people and system sabotage us, it’s a natural law. But once it starts moving in the right direction, positive change becomes almost unstoppable.”
Stefan changed his approach. Instead of big, dramatic transformations that require enormous amounts of energy to overcome organizational inertia, he started with small, consistent moves. Small steps require less energy to overcome the status quo. One new process monthly. One new habit in teamwork. One small change in communication.
After six months, the organization began seeking new improvements on its own. After a year, change became self-sustaining. Inertia worked in his favor – once initiated, change generated momentum that made further changes easier.
Why Leonardo da Vinci is a Genius
Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t the best painter, anatomist, engineer, or botanist of his time – there were specialized masters in each of these fields who surpassed him in technical skills. But Leonardo was the only one who saw deep, hidden connections between all these fields.
His genius lay in the ability to combine mental models from physics, biology, art, mathematics, and engineering in ways no one before him had even attempted. He applied thermodynamics to understanding how water flows through channels and how heat moves through materials. He used inertia to design machines that maximally utilize momentum. He combined anatomy with geometry to create proportions that make his art timeless. His revolutionary discoveries didn’t come from deep knowledge of one field, but from the ability to see patterns that repeat across different disciplines. When he studied blood circulation in the human body, he saw the same principles that govern water flow in rivers. When he designed flying machines (ornithopters), he combined his observations of bird anatomy with principles of mechanics and aerodynamics.
We’re taught and trained to be experts, narrowly specialized, deep. This is one reason why the ability to connect seemingly unrelated areas becomes increasingly rare – and consequently increasingly valuable. The greatest innovations in business today come precisely at the intersection of different disciplines: fintech combines finance and technology, behavioral economics merges psychology and economics, “design thinking” connects art and business strategy. It’s not necessary (nor possible) to become an expert in everything, but it is necessary (and possible) to develop the ability to see connections that others miss. It’s necessary (and possible) to learn the language of connections, the language of analogies, the language of metaphors, the language of mental models that breaks through the boundaries of the boxes the world tries to squeeze us into.
It’s not necessary (nor possible) to become an expert in everything, but it is necessary (and possible) to develop the ability to see connections that others miss.
Your Next Step
When was the last time you talked to someone from a completely different industry about how they solve problems? Try this – every week learn one mental model from a field that’s foreign to you (I suggest starting with physics and biology). Every month read a book (or at least an article in a professional magazine) on a topic that scares you with its subject matter. If you work in IT, visit an agricultural fair. If you’re an artist, go to a tech conference. Every day offers you countless opportunities to broaden your perspective and increase your keyhole. Talk to taxi drivers about their most interesting customers – they’re walking case studies of human behavior. Ask people what most people wrongly think about their job. These misconceptions often reveal our own prejudices too.
You deserve to be what you can be. Anything less than that is too little to dedicate your entire unique life to. And to be that, you need to see, to see broadly.
2020
Comments