A collection of mental models I have picked up or learned about.
Quality Control via Random testing
- If you have a team of persons that are doing a repetitive task over a long period of time, eventually your team will start to take shortcuts. To ensure the quality your team produces stays consistent, you need to randomly test your team.
- Example: I used to be part of a team of around 100 that graded standardized tests for 8+ hours a day. The work is very repetitive and we are pressured to grade as many papers as possible. Every person will get a “fake” paper to grade and if we gave it an incorrect score, we would get called to the supervisors desk and go over the grading process with them. This was great as it motivated me to score every paper correctly as I did not want to get called to the supervisors desk (specially in front of all the other testers).
Practice, Practice, Practice
- If I practice something long enough, I will get good at it
- There are no shortcuts, if I want to:
- Pass the test
- Be good at soccer
- Be good at talking to girls
- Be good at coding
- Be good at basketball
- Be good a cooking
- Get a “A” in Physics class
- Be the best at work
- Wake up at 5:30 am everyday
- and so on… I need to put the work needed
- Volume is the key and realize that sometimes “my best” is not good enough