[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The Pareto Structure of Thought

empirical discovery of the six foundational mental moves

## Details

**Authors** Cabrera D, Cabrera L

**Year** 2025

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking

**Kind of work** article

**Reading level** technical

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.v25i1.dc6par6) 
10.54120/jost.v25i1.dc6par6

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Observational analysis of structural operations performed by 34,398 users of a mapping tool, testing whether the available structure is used evenly or follows a predictable distribution.

### What they found (results)

48% took no structural action at all. Of the rest, 48% identified parts and 46% relationships, but only 25% named the wholes they had made. 16% took an explicit perspective, 4% distinguished within one, and 2% related within one.

## Commentary

### Response

Not derivable from the calculus, which is what makes it the answer to the charge that the framework explains everything and forbids nothing. Nobody would have guessed this distribution. It is also the diagnosis the Six Moves were selected from.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

## Studies reported in this

- Systems mapping (N = 34,398)

## Questions it bears on

- Q1. [What is thinking (T)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/what-thinking)
- Q2. [What is organization (O)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/what-organization)
- Q3. [Does this organization (O) exist in the mind, and in what minds produce?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/completeness-mind)
- Q4. [Does this organization (O) exist in reality?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/completeness-reality)
- Q5. [Does the same organization (O) hold across every domain and scale?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/scale-generality)
- Q6. [Does the organization (O) constrain anything, and does it predict anything?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/forbids-anything)
- Q8. [Do information (I) and organization (O) combine multiplicatively?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/multiplicative-form)
- Q11. [What are perception and attention?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/perception-attention)
- Q13. [What is context (C)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/context)
- Q15. [What is action (B)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/action)
- Q20. [What is a question (Q)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/question)
- Q21. [What is bias (B)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/bias)
- Q22. [What is mental fitness (F)?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/mental-fitness)
- Q23. [Can people become more mentally fit?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/fitness-can-increase)
- Q24. [Does awareness of organization (O) increase mental fitness?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/o-awareness-works)
- Q25. [Does practice in organization (O) increase mental fitness?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/o-practice-works)
- Q26. [Can mental fitness and its mechanisms be measured?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/fitness-measurable)
- Q27. [Does measuring mental fitness improve it?](https://dsrpevidence.org/question/measuring-improves)

**How to cite this** Cabrera D, Cabrera L (2025). The Pareto Structure of Thought: empirical discovery of the six foundational mental moves. Journal of Systems Thinking.