George Mack

George Mack (@george__mack) is a writer on X whose short threads on mental models, incentives, creativity and prediction have been saved into the wiki. Ten of his posts are archived as tweets, spanning 2020 to 2025.

Recurring subjects

• Mental models and incentives. The Cobra Effect post (bounties on snakes in Delhi led people to breed cobras) is summarized as “Incentives have 2nd + 3rd order effects.” His “12 thoughts on incentives” thread collects examples, including a Buffett quote on congressional re-election, the shift in pay for British sea captains that raised convict survival, and Naval’s line about incentives and incompetence. See Incentives and Mental Models.
• People worth studying. He compiled his five favorite mental models of Josh Waitzkin, whom he calls possibly “the most INTERESTING person alive.”
• Thinking and prediction. Threads titled “How to think for yourself” and “10 thoughts on predicting future trends” are saved as image posts. Another notes that Walt Disney drew his planned media empire in 1957, as an example of drawing the connections of a system as a clear-thinking exercise.
• Formative media. A 2025 post proposes that everyone consumed a piece of media between ages 9 and 13 that became the foundation of their worldview, and suggests asking it as a dinner question.
• Social tactics and product ideas. One post advises answering the “what do you do?” question with the lowest-status answer and saving the best insights for the rest of the conversation. Another is a request for a product that scales the top 1% of teachers online, paid for by higher-earning families.
• Writing online. He describes being sent a piece through the post by Rick Rubin, a response to the piece he wrote on creativity.

Where this appears

Saved tweets

• Josh Waitzkin Might Be The… (tweet)
• 12 Thoughts on Incentives - 1… (tweet)
• MENTAL MODEL - the Cobra… (tweet)
• I Have a Theory That… (tweet)
• How to Think for Yourself… (tweet)
• 10 Thoughts on Predicting Future… (tweet)
• If someone asks you “what… (tweet)
• One of the Coolest Things… (tweet)
• Request for product 1. Take… (tweet)
• Walt Disney Drew the Media… (tweet)

Concepts

• Building a Following