Coaching practices for Model Assumptions Check

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Model Assumptions Check, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
• In my head the things I’m sure of and the things I’m just guessing at all run together as one blur, so I end up treating my assumptions like hard limits
• This person fits the picture in my head of exactly the type who’d do the thing, and I’m treating that as near-certain
• I trust my favorite framework so completely that I apply it everywhere without checking, and lately it’s been quietly steering me wrong
• I’m reaching for a framework that worked great somewhere else and dropping it onto this situation, and a part of me isn’t sure the two cases are actually the same kind of thing underneath

Practices that may help

1. Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
   Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
   The Ladder of Inference
2. Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
   Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
   First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable
3. Interrogate whether similarity is doing the work
   When assessing probability or quality, ask whether you’re really judging similarity to a prototype.
   Attribute Substitution: When Your Brain Answers a Different Question
4. Constantly distinguish the map from the territory
   A model is a simplification — know precisely where yours breaks down.
   Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach
5. Question whether the category you’re reasoning from actually fits
   Before applying a model or framework, verify that the category it was built on genuinely matches your situation.
   The Ludic Fallacy: When You Mistake Real Life for a Game
6. Name the assumptions that must hold for the plan to work
   Every plan rests on assumptions — list them and ask how likely each one is.
   Margin of Safety
7. Look up base rates before forming a resemblance judgment
   Before deciding "this looks like X," ask how common X actually is in the relevant population.
   The Representativeness Heuristic — Judging by Resemblance
8. Audit person-judgments for prototype substitution
   Check whether a judgment about a person is based on their actual behavior or on resemblance to a type.
   The Representativeness Heuristic — Judging by Resemblance
9. Test the big assumption behind your immunity
   Design a small experiment to check whether the assumption keeping you stuck is actually true.
   Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
10. Surface and test the mental models driving behavior
    Make the assumptions behind decisions explicit — they are often the root structural cause.
    Systems Thinking

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.