In a world where GPS is a finger tap away, most people take maps for granted. It is difficult to understand that the oldest surviving maps had little to do with reality. Babylonian World Map, for example, was a clay tablet about the size of a first-generation iPhone. Created between 700 and 500 BC, the map shows Babylon in the middle, with the Euphrates River running through the center and the ocean on all sides. like Smithsonian Magazine explains, it was not a map for navigation – more a way for the map holder to get an idea of ​​the world around them. Accuracy was an afterthought.

Centuries would pass before an astronomer and astrologer was appointed Claudius Ptolemy attempted the first realistic map—a two-dimensional depiction of what Ptolemy understood to be a spherical Earth. This is a prime example of when a great thinker implements a new mental model—basically, a new way of thinking about things; a heuristic for interpreting the world. Instead of accepting previously more symbolic pictures of the Earth, Ptolemy dared to create a true-to-life representation. He shifted the way of thinking from the story to the description of reality.

Mental models help us understand things more fully and come up with smarter, more innovative solutions. But how Charlie Mungerformer vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., he used to sayyou have to build a “lattice” of mental modelsusing different models to maximize your understanding of different situations.