Building models ​

To effectively manage attention, we need models. Models represent a simplified description of a piece of reality that allows an agent to understand how to discuss this piece of the world in a way that is clear to other agents - and to individually or collectively achieve goals faster and easier.

Models sum up the experience of other people who have dealt with this piece of the world before. For example, financiers build financial models to assess the financial situation of a company, and a leader can build a model of interaction within a team. These models are not taken from nowhere, but from disciplines ("theories") and are tested by "practice" (activity). How exactly to do this, and what happens to attention during this process, will be discussed further in the course.

We will learn to consciously look at the world through the prism of models. So that you get used to seeing the world through special "lenses", understanding that you and other people have them, and having the ability to examine these models and change something in them if they do not produce the desired result (without being stubborn). The concepts of "model" and "meta-model" should go from being some scary abstractions to becoming your assistants in activities.

At the beginning of focusing attention with the help of models, you will slow down: a decrease in speed of work at the start is the price for acquiring new quality. After acquiring a new quality of mastery, we will automate (increase the speed of execution) its improved version.