Every mental model you rely on was built during a period of your life when you had less information than you do now — yet most of us never audit them. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus drew a sharp distinction between *hypolepsis* (the pre-loaded assumptions we carry) and *prohairesis* (deliberate judgment we actually choose). The trouble is that hypolepsis feels like prohairesis — we experience our inherited frameworks as conscious choices when they're really just grooves worn deep by repetition. Zen practice has a parallel move: the concept of *shoshin*, or 'beginner's mind,' which Shunryu Suzuki described in *Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind* as the posture of approaching even familiar things without the armor of expertise. Together, these traditions suggest a Saturday practice: pick one mental model you use constantly — about people, money, conflict, whatever — and ask when you actually formed it. Not why it's right. Just *when*.

Which mental model do you defend most vigorously when challenged — and does that defensiveness tell you something about whether it's still earning its place?

Drawing from Stoicism / Zen Buddhism — Epictetus and Shunryu Suzuki