TooHardPile.com

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I knew the mental models. I just wasn't using them.

For years, I collected mental models.

Inversion.
First principles.
Second-order thinking.
Opportunity cost.
Premortems.
Sunk cost.
Circle of competence.
10/10/10.

I could explain what they meant.

I could probably give you examples.

And yet, when I actually had a difficult decision to make, I would usually do something completely different:

Overthink it.

Search for more information.

Ask someone else what they would do.

Make a giant pros-and-cons list.

Then eventually go with my gut anyway.

Which made me realize something:

Learning mental models and using mental models are two completely different skills.

The real problem isn't knowing the model

Take inversion.

Most people can understand the idea:

Instead of asking “How do I succeed?”, ask “How could I guarantee failure?”

Simple.

But imagine you're deciding whether to launch a product.

It's easy to say you know inversion.

It's much more useful to actually sit down and ask:

• What would make this launch fail?

• What am I assuming that could be completely wrong?

• What am I ignoring because I want this to work?

• What would I regret not considering?

That's where the model becomes useful.

The same thing happens with almost every mental model.

The value isn't in knowing the definition. It's in recognizing when the model should be used.

And that recognition comes from practice.

That's why I built Too Hard Pile

I wanted something more practical than another website explaining mental models.

So I built Too Hard Pile around actually practicing better thinking.

There are a few parts to it:

🧰 Decision Toolbox

A free, no-signup toolbox for when you're actually stuck on a decision.

Pick a framework and work through the problem instead of endlessly thinking about it in circles.

🧠 Mental Model Trainer

Instead of simply reading a list of mental models, you practice them through decision scenarios.

The idea is simple:

See a difficult situation → choose how to think about it → apply the model → repeat.

Over time, you start recognizing patterns instead of having to consciously remember every definition.

📓 Decision Journal

This is probably the part I'm most interested in.

Write down what you're deciding, why you're making the decision, what you expect to happen, and what you're uncertain about.

Then come back later.

Because one of the best ways to improve your thinking is to compare:

What I thought would happen

vs.

What actually happened.

Without a record, it's surprisingly easy to rewrite your own history and convince yourself that you “basically knew” what was going to happen.

A journal gives you receipts.

🎯 Decision Drills

Short, difficult scenarios designed to make you stop and think.

Not trivia.

Not “what is confirmation bias?”

Instead, you're put in a situation where confirmation bias, sunk cost, opportunity cost, or another model might actually matter.

The goal is to build the instinct.

I don't think you need 100+ mental models

Honestly, I think collecting mental models can become its own form of procrastination.

You save another article.

Read another book.

Add another model to your notes.

Feel slightly smarter.

Then make the next important decision exactly the same way you always did.

I've done this.

A lot.

I'd rather know 20 models really well and recognize when to use them than memorize 200 definitions I never apply.

Mental models aren't magic.

They won't guarantee good decisions.

But they can give you better questions to ask when your brain is doing what brains naturally do:

looking for shortcuts, defending existing beliefs, overvaluing what's immediate, and trying to make uncertainty feel more certain than it really is.

That's what I'm trying to build with Too Hard Pile.

Not another encyclopedia of mental models.

A place to practice thinking with them.

If you're interested in decision-making, mental models, or just want to get slightly better at making difficult choices, I'd love for you to take a look:

https://toohardpile.com

And if you have a mental model you find genuinely useful in real life, I'd love to hear which one—and, more importantly, when you actually use it.

When you're stuck on a decision, it's tempting to:

→ Read another article
→ Ask another person
→ Do more research
→ Open 17 more tabs 😅

But ask yourself:

“What information could actually change my decision?”

If the answer is nothing, you're probably not researching.

You're procrastinating.

The goal isn't to collect more information.

It's to find the information that matters.

What's a mental model you actually use in real life?

Not the one you know.

The one you actually use. 👇