Mental Pivot #52: Representations and Reality
The map-territory relationship, a tip for reliably getting to the point, and the popularity of educational site MasterClass.
…the map appears to us more real than the land. Short sighted almost to blindness, we pore over the chart, map out journeys and confirm them: and we cannot see life itself giving us the lie the whole time.
—D.H. Lawrence (Essay: “Study of Thomas Hardy”, 1914)
Don’t mistake the map for the land.
More generally: don’t mistake the representation of a thing for the thing itself.
A recent exchange between me and my wife illustrates the folly of forgetting this fact (naturally, I’m the fool in this example):
HER: It’s time to head out, do we need an umbrella?
ME: Hold on, let me check the weather app.
HER: Did you even look out the window?
ME: Why? I’ve got this. [holds up phone]
HER: Maybe open the door and step outside?
ME: No need, it has hour-by-hour precipitation probabilities.
HER: Looks grim out there.
ME: Just a sec—
HER: Fine. I’ll step outside. [She walks onto our front stoop]
ME: All clear. The weather app says zero chance of rain right now.
HER: Um, it’s definitely raining.
ME: That can’t be. It’s not supposed to rain.
HER: I’m literally feeling drops of rain on my skin.
ME: But the app says—
HER: Seriously? Reality is suggesting otherwise!
Some of you might be familiar with philosopher Alfred Korzybski’s admonition that “a map is not the territory” and “a word is not the thing.” Like the D.H. Lawrence quote, it’s a reminder not to conflate or confuse a representation (e.g., a map) with the thing being represented (e.g., a territory).
You know, like trusting a weather app over what’s actually transpiring outside.
This doesn’t mean maps aren’t useful. They most certainly are. Just be cognizant of their limitations; a good number of thinking errors crop up when we lose sight of this.
I’ll take that into account the next time I need an umbrella.
Further reading and exploration:
Map-Territory Relation (Wikipedia): Overview of the topic.
The Map Is Not the Territory (Farnam Street Blog): Part of Shane Parrish’s extensive mental models series.
The Menu Is Not the Food (YouTube): Excerpt from an Alan Watts’ speech, “From Time to Eternity,” that touches on our confusion between maps and territories.
Now onto this week's recommendations…
Thinking Tools:
How to Get Useful Answers to Your Questions: Julia Evans shares two tactics she uses to obtain helpful information. This piece echoes the solid advice from Stavros Korokithakis’ “How to Ask for Help” (from Issue #47).
Riding the Writing Wave: David Perell wants you to think clearly by writing clearly. His 10-step writing process contains practical advice for developing and articulating your thoughts. The supplemental reading list with articles and books by other authors is useful.
Stop Rambling. How to Get to the Point: Joel Schwartzenberg’s “I believe that” exercise is a simple trick for identifying a valid point (it’s something I need to work on!).
Reading Enrichment:
12 Predictions for the Future of Music: Jazz critic Ted Gioia’s prognostications are not novel, but they do catalog ongoing trends in the music industry.
Can Masterclass Teach You Everything?: Tad Friend’s long piece for the New Yorker examines the rise, popularity, and ambition of online education site, MasterClass. Is it the future of learning, or is it an overly slick, well-packaged money grab preying on aspirations? (I’ll have to run a trial in the future to see what all the fuss is about).
The Enumerator: Dispatches from a Broken Census Count: Jeremy Miller gives a first-hand account of his month-long experience as a “NRFU” in the 2020 U.S. census. NRFUs are the workers who knock on doors and make repeat home-visits in an attempt to tally citizens who don’t return their surveys.
The Fluoride Wars Rage On: Lauren Gravitz’s piece for Nature is an excellent case study on the challenges of crafting public policy, the debate over the underlying science, and how disparate groups interpret the cost/benefit equation.
The New Question Haunting Adoption: Olga Khazan dives into cultural and demographic factors that have created a shortage of adoptable babies in America (babies, not children—there are still plenty of older children who need caring homes). Some key reasons: the reduced stigma for single parents, fewer foreign adoptions due to policies that prioritize keeping children in their home countries (as well as geopolitics), and lower birth rates—particularly teenage pregnancies.
Odds & Ends:
This Word Does Not Exist is an amusing project by Thomas Dimson to train a GPT-2 model that makes up words and their definitions from scratch. Some words sound quite convincing. Reminiscent of the site, This Person Does Not Exist, which generates images of people from a machine learning model.
Across Kazakstan by Rail is a photo essay by Mario Heller, who spent three weeks crossing the steppe of Central Asia. The vast empty plains are a striking contrast to the variety of activity on the passenger cars. You can see additional photos and commentary on Mario Heller’s personal site, Kazakhstan Time Travel.
FlowingData is Nathan Yau’s long-running site on data visualization. It’s an obligatory bookmark and RSS subscription. Some recent gems: Television Genres Over Time (stacked area chart), USA Democrat Spending Proposal (treemap box), Age and Occupation Ranges for 529 Jobs (dot plot).
Cross-Promotions:
The Sample: A newsletter discovery tool. Based on your interests and feedback, The Sample sends a new newsletter recommendation to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.
The Veggie Digest: A weekly newsletter about the latest trends in sustainable food innovation. My daughter, an environmental policy student, writes it and I periodically contribute to it.
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