Top 11 'Mental-Model-Mastery' Educational Apps to explore for Making Wiser Decisions in 2025 - Goh Ling Yong
In a world overflowing with information, the quality of our decisions determines the quality of our lives. We're constantly bombarded with choices, from the seemingly small (what to focus on this morning) to the life-altering (which career path to pursue). How do we navigate this complexity without getting paralyzed by analysis or, worse, making impulsive mistakes? The answer isn't about having more information; it's about having better frameworks for thinking.
This is where mental models come in. Think of them as the operating system for your brain. They are simplified representations of how the world works, helping you filter noise, see patterns, and understand complex systems. Billionaire investor Charlie Munger, a vocal proponent of this approach, famously advocated for building a "latticework of mental models" from various disciplines to make consistently wiser decisions. By understanding concepts like Inversion, Second-Order Thinking, or Occam's Razor, you can approach problems from multiple angles and avoid common cognitive traps.
But let's be honest: building this mental toolkit can feel daunting. Reading dense books and academic papers isn't always practical. The good news? It's 2025, and technology is finally catching up. A new wave of educational apps is designed specifically to help you learn, practice, and master these powerful thinking tools. Here are the top 11 apps you should explore to level up your decision-making game this year.
1. Latticework
Latticework is the digital encyclopedia for mental model enthusiasts. It’s less of a "course" and more of a dynamic, interconnected library of the world's most powerful thinking concepts. The app is built on the principle that models are most useful when you see how they connect and overlap, creating that robust "latticework" Munger described.
The app features hundreds of models, from Hanlon's Razor (don't attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity) to the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule). Each model is explained with a clear definition, historical context, and most importantly, dozens of real-world case studies from business, history, and science. Its killer feature is the "Model Weaver," which visually maps how a concept like "Confirmation Bias" might interact with "Availability Heuristic" in a specific scenario, like a flawed hiring decision.
Pro-Tip: Use the "Daily Scenario" feature. Every morning, Latticework presents a short, real-world problem (e.g., "Your team's project is behind schedule. What do you do?"). You're prompted to apply three different mental models to analyze the situation, forcing you to move beyond your default thinking patterns.
2. Untools
If Latticework is the encyclopedia, Untools is the minimalist, elegant toolbox. This app (and popular website) focuses on providing clean, simple, and visual frameworks for thinking. It doesn't overwhelm you with hundreds of models but instead curates a selection of the most practical tools for problem-solving, decision-making, and systems thinking.
Untools excels at clarity. Each tool, like the "Iceberg Model" or "First-Principles Thinking," is presented on a single, beautifully designed page with a concise explanation and a visual diagram. It’s designed for immediate application. When you're stuck on a problem, you can quickly scroll through the tools, find one that fits your situation, and use its framework to structure your thoughts.
Example in Action: Before launching a new product, use the "Second-Order Thinking" tool in Untools. The app provides a simple template to map out the immediate consequences (1st order), the consequences of those consequences (2nd order), and even the next level (3rd order). This helps you anticipate unintended side effects and make more robust plans.
3. ModelThinker
For those who learn best by doing, ModelThinker offers a gamified approach to mental model mastery. It turns the process of learning into an engaging series of challenges, quizzes, and simulations. The app is structured like a mental gym, where you train different "thinking muscles" each day.
ModelThinker presents you with interactive scenarios where you must identify the relevant mental model or cognitive bias at play. For example, a simulation might describe a team falling victim to "Groupthink" during a meeting, and you have to correctly identify the bias and choose the best intervention. As you progress, you unlock more complex models and earn points, tracking your mastery over time on a personal dashboard.
Pro-Tip: Compete in the weekly "Decision Duels." In these challenges, you're pitted against another user's logic in a hypothetical business or life scenario. This competitive element forces you to not only know the models but also apply them effectively under pressure.
4. Brilliant.org
While not exclusively a "mental models" app, Brilliant.org is an essential tool for building the foundational skills required for high-quality thinking. It teaches complex subjects in math, science, and computer science through interactive, bite-sized problem-solving. This approach is the perfect training ground for developing a "First-Principles" mindset.
Mental models are useless without a solid grasp of logic, probability, and scientific reasoning. Brilliant helps you build these core competencies from the ground up. By working through its visual puzzles, you're not just memorizing facts; you're learning how to think. You'll find yourself intuitively understanding concepts like causality, correlation, and statistical significance, which are critical for debunking flawed arguments and making sound judgments.
Example in Action: Work through Brilliant's "Logic and Deduction" course. The skills you sharpen there—understanding conditional statements, identifying fallacies, and constructing sound arguments—are directly applicable to deconstructing any complex decision you face in your professional or personal life.
5. Decision Journal
This app is based on a simple but profound idea: to get better at making decisions, you must review your past decisions. Decision Journal is a structured diary for your choices. Before you commit to a significant decision, you log it in the app.
You're prompted to record the situation, the options you considered, the mental models you used to analyze them (e.g., Inversion, Circle of Competence), your expected outcome, and the reasoning behind your final choice. Then, you set a review date—a month, a quarter, or a year later. When the time comes, the app prompts you to reflect on the actual outcome. This creates a powerful feedback loop, helping you see where your reasoning was sound and where your biases led you astray.
Pro-Tip: Use the "Bias Tracker" tag. When you suspect a cognitive bias (like "Optimism Bias" for a project timeline or "Sunk Cost Fallacy" for a failing investment) might be influencing you, tag the decision. Over time, the app will show you which biases you are most susceptible to.
6. Second Order
As its name suggests, Second Order is a niche but incredibly powerful app dedicated to mastering one specific, high-leverage mental model: second-order thinking. The ability to think through the chain of effects and consequences beyond the immediate result is a hallmark of strategic thinkers. This app is a dedicated training ground for that skill.
Second Order presents you with a daily news headline, a business decision, or a policy proposal (e.g., "A city implements a universal basic income"). Your task is to map out the potential consequences. The interface is a branching mind map where you first list the immediate, first-order effects. Then, for each of those, you brainstorm the second-order effects, and so on. Other users can comment on and add to your consequence map, creating a crowd-sourced view of complex systems.
Example in Action: Before making a simple decision like adopting a new software tool for your team, run it through the Second Order app. First-order effect: Increased productivity. Second-order effects: A steep learning curve causes initial frustration; team members who master it become more valuable; integration costs arise; older, simpler workflows are abandoned. This gives you a much richer picture of the decision.
7. Cognitive Bias Codex
If you want to make better decisions, you first have to understand the invisible scripts running in your mind. Cognitive Bias Codex is your field guide to the glitches in human reasoning. It presents a comprehensive, searchable, and easy-to-understand library of cognitive biases, from the Dunning-Kruger Effect to the Halo Effect.
Each day, the app features a "Bias of the Day," with a simple explanation and a contemporary example from the news or social media. The real magic is its "Spot It" feature. It challenges you to find an example of that bias in your own life or in something you read that day and log it. This active practice trains your brain to recognize these fallacies in real-time, especially in your own thinking.
Pro-Tip: Before any important negotiation or meeting, spend five minutes in the app reviewing biases related to social dynamics, like the "Ben Franklin Effect" or "Authority Bias." This pre-briefing will make you more aware and less susceptible to manipulation.
8. Blinkist
Charlie Munger’s "latticework" is built by drawing insights from a wide array of disciplines. But who has time to read hundreds of books on physics, psychology, biology, and economics? Blinkist (and similar apps like Headway) offers a powerful shortcut. It distills the key ideas from bestselling nonfiction books into 15-minute audio or text summaries.
By spending just 15-30 minutes a day with Blinkist, you can expose yourself to a staggering diversity of ideas. One day you can learn about network effects from a business book, and the next you can absorb the concept of antifragility from Nassim Taleb. This cross-disciplinary knowledge is the raw material for building new mental models and seeing connections that others miss. As we often discuss here on the Goh Ling Yong blog, this breadth of knowledge is a superpower for modern problem-solvers.
Pro-Tip: Create a "Mental Model" playlist. As you listen to summaries, whenever you encounter a powerful, reusable concept, add it to a dedicated collection. Revisit this playlist once a month to reinforce the key ideas and help them stick.
9. Stoic
Decision-making isn't just a logical process; it's an emotional one. Fear, greed, and ego can derail even the most well-reasoned plan. The Stoic app is a mental health and journaling tool based on the ancient philosophy of Stoicism—a powerful operating system for emotional resilience.
The app guides you through practices like negative visualization (imagining what could go wrong to better prepare for it) and the "Dichotomy of Control" (focusing only on what you can influence). These exercises help you cultivate a calm, objective mindset, which is the ideal state for making high-stakes decisions. By journaling your fears and reflections, you learn to separate external events from your internal interpretation of them.
Example in Action: Facing a stressful decision with an uncertain outcome? Use the app's guided "Dichotomy of Control" exercise. Draw a line down the middle of the screen. On one side, list the elements you can control (your effort, your response, your integrity). On the other, list what you can't (the outcome, other people's reactions, luck). This simple act refocuses your energy where it matters most.
10. FS Learning Hub
Shane Parrish’s Farnam Street blog is arguably the internet's single best resource for mastering mental models. The FS Learning Hub app brings this deep well of wisdom into a structured, interactive learning environment. It’s more than just an archive of articles; it's a curriculum for better thinking.
The app organizes Farnam Street's best content into learning modules on topics like "Understanding Confirmation Bias" or "The Art of Second-Order Thinking." These modules include articles, podcast clips, and, crucially, worksheets and reflection prompts to help you internalize the concepts. It also features a community section where members can discuss how they've applied these models in their own lives, creating a shared pool of practical wisdom.
Pro-Tip: Join a "Learning Circle" within the app. These are small groups focused on mastering a specific set of models over a few weeks. The accountability and shared insights from a peer group can dramatically accelerate your learning curve.
11. Reflectly
At its core, Reflectly is an AI-powered journal that helps you track your moods and thoughts. However, its true power for decision-making lies in its ability to help you spot patterns in your own thinking over time. By consistently journaling about your day, especially your successes and frustrations, you create a rich dataset about your own psychology.
Reflectly's AI analyzes your entries and provides insights, asking pointed questions like, "It seems you often feel anxious when facing deadlines. What's the underlying cause?" or "You've mentioned 'feeling overwhelmed' three times this week. What situations are triggering this?" This guided self-reflection is an incredibly effective way to uncover your personal cognitive biases, emotional triggers, and recurring thought loops that might be sabotaging your decisions.
Example in Action: For one month, make a point to journal specifically about a decision you made each day. At the end of the month, use the app's analytics to look for patterns. Do you consistently overestimate how much you can get done? Do you avoid decisions that involve potential conflict? This self-awareness is the first step toward upgrading your mental software.
Your Toolkit for a Wiser Future
Mastering mental models isn't a one-time event; it's a lifelong practice of refining how you see and interact with the world. Technology, when used intentionally, can be a powerful accelerator on this journey. The apps on this list are not magic bullets, but they are exceptional tools—gyms for your mind, coaches for your clarity, and maps for navigating complexity.
As Goh Ling Yong often emphasizes, the goal is not just to learn the name of a model, but to internalize it so deeply that it automatically informs your perception. Start by picking one or two of these apps that resonate with your learning style. Commit to using them for just 10-15 minutes a day. By this time next year, the compound interest on your thinking will have paid remarkable dividends.
Which of these apps are you most excited to try? Do you have another favorite tool for improving your thinking that I missed? Share your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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