Necessity vs. Sufficiency

The Idea

Contributed by @philhagspiel |  Edited and curated by @philhagspiel

What you must have to succeed might not be enough to actually succeed.

icon
World View
icon
Mental Models
icon
Taking Action

image

When we try to extract the factors that create a particular condition, we quickly get stuck with commonalities between different observations.

For example, when we analyse why people are successful in business, we might look at what all successful business people have in common.

But even if there is something that all have indeed in common (e.g. working really hard), this doesn't tell us much about whether that thing will make us successful. It only tells us that without hard work, we can't become successful. There will be lots of people who work very hard, but aren't successful.

Hard work is necessary for success, but it's not sufficient. In other words, you can't be successful without hard work, but hard work is not a guarantee for success.

Likewise, whenever we try to find out how something comes about, there's almost always something that's necessary, but not sufficient by itself. Usually, sufficiency is the result of a combination of factors, each single one potentially necessary.

In general, a necessary condition is one which must be present in order for an event to occur — but it alone doesn't provide sufficient cause for the occurence. A sufficient condition, however, is one which will definitely cause the event.

Explore

➞ For a great and understandable introduction, check out this Khan Academy article.

➞ If you want to understand even more, read this Wikipedia article.

Resources

If this idea resonates with you, some of these resources might add value to your life.

MindVault Resources Master

LinkNAMEAuthorFormat
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
Book
Thinking Fast And Slow
Daniel Kahnemann
Book
Factfulness
Hans Rosling
Book
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson & Lord William Rees-Mogg
Book
VSI: Thinking & Reasoning
Jonathan Evans
Book
Antifragility
Nassim Taleb
Book
Skin In The Game
Nassim Taleb
Book
Fooled By Randomness
Nassim Taleb
Book
Principles
Ray Dalio
Book
59 Seconds - Think A Little Change A Lot
Richard Wiseman
Book
The Great Mental Models (vol. 2)
Shane Parrish
Book
The Great Mental Models (vol. 1)
Shane Parrish
Book
Enlightenment Now
Steven Pinker
Book
21 Lessons For The 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari
Book
Modern Wisdom
Chris Williamson
Podcast
David McRaney
Podcast
Eric Weinstein
Podcast
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
Podcast
The “What Is Money?” Show
Robert Breedlove
Podcast
The Knowledge Project
Shane Parrish
Podcast
Stephen West
Podcast
Conversations With Tyler
Tyler Cowen
Podcast
Hidden Brain
Podcast
YouTube Channel
YouTube Channel
Crash Course: Statistics
YouTube Channel
YouTube Channel
Quanta Magazine
YouTube Channel
Primer
YouTube Channel
YouTube Channel
YouTube Channel
YouTube Channel
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Blog
Farnam Street
Shane Parrish
Blog
Lesswrong
Blog
Untools.co
Blog
Edge.org
Blog
Brilliant.org
Courses