Secrets

Questions

What is Secrets?

As a mental model, popularised by Peter Thiel, a secret is not gossip but an important truth few people yet see. Great businesses and discoveries are often built on one, like Airbnb's insight that people would happily stay in strangers' homes, an idea that sounded absurd at first.

How do you use Secrets?

Question conventional wisdom and look for what others in your field overlook. Diverse perspectives help, since secrets often appear when familiar problems are viewed from new angles. And when you believe you have found one, have the courage to act on it before it becomes obvious.

When does Secrets matter?

Secrets is one of the 56 mental models for strategy, the situations where you ask: How do I win when others want the same thing? Within that, it belongs to “Finding your advantage”, alongside Barriers to Entry, Center of Gravity and Economies of Scale.

What is an example of Secrets?

Two stories show it at work: Copernicus waits (1514–1543) and Airbnb (2008). Both are told in full in The Mental Models Daily Almanac, which has two stories for each of its 365 models.

Which mental models are related to Secrets?

First Principles Thinking, Paradigm Shift and Semmelweis Reflex. Secrets itself comes from sociology.