It’s very easy to take bad decisions, thankfully there are mental models that can teach us how to think and how to take better decisions.
Second-order thinking is a mental model that helps us find the long term consequences of our decisions and thus help us make better decisions leaving the immediate gratification behind. It’s very easy to think about the immediate results and forget about what’s going to happen after, that’s why this model brings a very important question: “Then what?”
From now on, I will start asking “then what?” every time I need to make a decision, it’s an habit I want to build.
If you’re interested about this and other mental models, I recommend you read fs.blog