Nagarjuna, the second-century Buddhist logician, built an entire philosophical system around one unsettling move: showing that a concept, when examined rigorously, undermines its own foundations. He called this śūnyatā — not 'emptiness' as in absence, but as in 'unfixed, without inherent nature.' He wasn't trying to destroy ideas. He was trying to free people from being imprisoned by them. The same move applies to the mental models you trust most. A model that explains everything in a domain starts to function less like a lens and more like a conclusion — you stop seeing the situation and start confirming the frame. Nagarjuna's practical gift isn't skepticism; it's the specific habit of asking, about your most reliable tools: 'What does this model need to be true that I haven't checked lately?' That question doesn't dissolve the model. It keeps it honest.

Name one model you applied this week without questioning it — and name the assumption buried underneath it.

Drawing from Madhyamaka Buddhist Philosophy — Nagarjuna