Use it or lose it

This month, we’re going to continue exploring the mental models that Charlie Munger covered in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, a compendium of 11 talks given throughout his life. The book culminates in one final, bumper-sized talk that is a collection of over 20 mental models that he attributed to his success.

Last month’s article covered one of these models: “invert, always invert”, which is a method for thinking about problems by flipping them on their head and considering the worst that could happen, and then ensuring that you don’t ever make that the case. It turns out that doesn’t just work for investing but it also works well for the kinds of problems that we face in software engineering: designing resilient systems, planning rollouts, and ensuring that you have a backup plan in case something goes wrong.

This month, we’re going to look at another one of these mental models: “use it or lose it.” This mental model is becoming increasingly relevant as AI becomes more ubiquitous in our lives.

Here’s what we’re going to cover in the article:

• We’ll start with an introduction to the use-it-or-lose-it model, looking at real examples ranging from playing an instrument to doing exercise.

-