# On the Importance of Mental Models as Building Blocks of Cognition In the fantastic blog post, [Toward an exploratory medium for mathematics](https://cognitivemedium.com/emm/emm.html), Nielson writes: > Written music originated as a recording medium, but became a creative medium in its own right. It made it much easier to compose complex, intricate music for many instruments and voices. This paved the way for Bach's fugues, Beethoven's symphonies, and much else. Written music became a medium for thought, a medium which expanded the range of musical ideas a composer could have, and thus changed music itself. It's an example of a _cognitive medium_ – a media environment to support and enable thought. This idea, that the *medium* can shape how you think is very powerful. It ties in nicely with an idea expressed all over the place when talking about mental models, summed up nicely here in The Great Mental Models, volume 1: > Mental models describe the way the world works. They shape how we think, how we understand, and how we form beliefs. Largely *subconscious*, mental models operate below the surface. We're not generally aware of them and yet they're the reason when we look at a problem we consider some factors relevant and others irrelevant. They are how we infer causality, match patterns, and draw analogies. They are how we think and reason. I believe that there is something lurking beneath the surface relating these two ideas together. I believe that by having a wide variety of mental models we essentially create a set of building blocks upon which we can structure new ideas. We have access to a set of lenses that allow for any problem to more readily come into focus. They allow for the creation of better ideas, thought and reasoning. --- Date: 20220122 Links to: Tags: References: * [Toward an exploratory medium for mathematics](https://cognitivemedium.com/emm/emm.html)