why the phrase "mental models"?
something about it has always felt weird to meโฆ aren't all models mental? / aren't all mental models just "concepts"?
is it like "mental math"? ie some models you have external to you to reference, but some live in procedural & working memory?
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I've always found the concept odd and amusing as well.
Essentially they're all the same thing as cognitive/conceptual metaphors from cognitive science and George Lakoff's metaphor theory.
"The programmer word for cognitive metaphors"
But now made trendy ๐
My impression is that the way the term is used is broader than metaphors e.g. thinking from first principles and second-order thinking (referred to as mental models) don't seem to map from a source domain to a target domain (like Lakoff's metaphors).
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Hm...Iโm not sure Iโd agree. fs.blog for example lists "Reciprocity" as a mental model, with physics example "I push wall, wall pushes back". I donโt think this maps well to what Lakoff talks about.