Constructs of how the world works in your head.
Everyone creates mental models to describe to themselves how the world works. Some people do it with more specificity. This ties to an anecdote about an RN who noticed a baby looked “wrong” in the NICU and made a judgment call that later saved the baby’s life. This is attributed to a strong mental model that helped her focus on the right details.
This seems very reminiscent of the story of the fireman who knew to leave the building his squad was firefighting in just before it collapsed for reasons he didn’t know at the time. This was an example of the manifestation of System 1 from Thinking Fast and Slow. It could also be an example of Thin Slicing from Blink.
👉 The best way to be able to focus on the right thing is the formulation of strong mental models.
You can form strong mental models by thinking about what will happen, making predictions of system behavior based on theories, then looking for differences in performance compared to the predictions.
One thing that probably exists mental model efficacy is having cast a wide net. Having a breadth of experience in spotting patterns of wildly different types from wildly different domains you’ve experienced.