A new mental model

“Human beings can’t run a mile in under four minutes. It simply isn’t possible.” Sound crazy? It does now. But for decades it was a common point of view. It was a mental model: an assumption about how the world worked. As Professor Jerry Wind of the Wharton School tells the story: The four-minute mile seemed like a physical barrier that humans could not cross… until May 6, 1954. That was the day that Roger Bannister, in a meet at Oxford, ran a mile in 3:59.3 He broke the barrier. Suddenly, in the next three years, 16 other runners cracked the four-minute mile as well. Was there some breakthrough in human evolution? No. What had changed was the mental model.” Lecinski, Jim (2011-06-24). Winning the Zero Moment of Truth – ZMOT (Enhanced Version) (Kindle Locations 122-128). Vook. Kindle Edition.