The map is not the territory

I came across Farnam Street one Saturday afternoon after surfing the web for a couple of hours. The quality of the work was outstanding, consistent and unique. Since then, it is one of the blogs I read the most (along with a16z’s) and many of the frameworks I apply mentally come from their writings. The map is not the territory touched on two subjects that I had been studying for a few years: antifragility and perception. How is that — presented with the same information — some people see what others don’t? Also, how is that some of our mental models — that help us make sense of the world — also may be separating us from different possibilities? or worse, from seeing?

A model might show you some risks, but not the risks of using it. Moreover, models are built on a finite set of parameters, while reality affords us infinite sources of risks.

What started with Taleb’s observations inspired from the work of Benoit Mandelbrot ended up becoming one of the design principles we incorporate into the products we develop at World Tech: emergence and systems dynamics — with antifragility being one characteristic of these design principles. If you want to dive more into this subject, check out the book called Emergence, The connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software.

The most recent book I read explains this concept of “the map not being your…