The Framework Builder: Organize Ideas into Mental Models
Turn scattered concepts into structured frameworks — find the organizing principle that connects ideas, reveals gaps, and gives you a mental model to carry forward.
Why Frameworks Help You Think, Not Just Remember
You’ve read three articles on climate policy. You remember fragments — carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, renewable subsidies, international agreements. But when someone asks “what are the main approaches to climate policy?”, your mind serves up a jumble instead of a clear answer.
This is the difference between collecting ideas and organizing them. A mental framework takes scattered concepts and arranges them into a structure that shows relationships: what causes what, what competes with what, what depends on what.
The build mental framework prompt (PR026) asks AI to do the structural work — finding the organizing principle that connects your ideas, revealing gaps you haven’t noticed, and giving you a simple model to carry forward.
How to Use the Framework Builder Prompt
The prompt works best when you feed it real ideas from your reading — not vague topics, but specific claims, concepts, or distinctions you’ve encountered:
1. Read first, list second. Don’t try to organize while reading. Just absorb. After you finish, jot down the 3–7 ideas that stood out most.
2. Be specific with each idea. Instead of “something about market forces,” write “markets can price externalities through carbon taxes.”
3. Run PR026 with your list. AI will propose relationships, an organizing principle, gaps, and a memorable model.
4. Evaluate critically. Does the organizing principle actually fit? Are the relationships AI found real, or forced?
After getting the initial framework, ask: “What would someone who disagrees with this organizing principle suggest instead? Give me an alternative framework using the same ideas.” Seeing two competing structures deepens understanding.
Organizing Principles: What Makes a Framework Work
The organizing principle — the logic that holds everything together — determines whether a framework actually helps you think. Common types:
Hierarchy — ideas nest inside larger categories. Useful when ideas have clear parent-child relationships.
Spectrum — ideas sit on a continuum between two poles. Useful when ideas represent degrees rather than types.
Matrix — ideas map to two dimensions. Useful for showing tradeoffs and revealing empty quadrants.
Cause-effect chain — ideas connect in a sequence. Useful when you’re tracking mechanisms.
Tension map — ideas exist in productive tension. Useful when ideas don’t fit neatly together.
AI-generated frameworks can feel complete when they’re not. Always ask: what would someone from a completely different field add? The biggest blind spots come from the boundaries of your reading, not the quality of your organizing.
The Framework Builder pairs naturally with other prompts: use the Implication Extender to explore what follows from your framework, or the Contradiction Resolver when ideas within your framework conflict.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frameworks Are the Start. Mastery Is the Goal.
These prompts give you the tools to organize ideas. The course gives you 365 articles — the raw material that makes your frameworks richer and battle-tested.
Start Learning →3 More Inference Guides Await
You’ve learned to build frameworks. Next, resolve contradictions, synthesize themes, and connect reading to the bigger picture.
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