The Map is not the Territory
The title is inspired by Farnam Street’s famous blogpost on Mental Models. (Do read it if you haven’t! There is also a book by the same name).
In India, there are three things that almost everybody has an opinion on- Cricket, UPSC and the appropriate length of women’s skirts.
Oh, Kohli is not in form these days, maybe he should play these kind of shots or even be replaced. Oh, UPSC! You know what they will ask in this year’s interview- for sure about Inflation because of the Russia-Ukraine War. Oh -that girl was raped! “taali ek haath se nahi bajti- we can’t clap with one hand”, the girl might have been a whore!
What they don’t realize is they have just seen a reduction of the territory which does not represent the territory in all its intricacies. Plus the territory evolves, the map is frozen in time.
It’s almost analogous to the story of blindfolded people trying to guess what are they touching, by simply touching different parts of an elephant. The one touching the huge body of the elephant, says it is an wall. The other touching the trunk, says it is a rope.
The Jain philosophy of Anekantvada is relevant at this point- It states that the ultimate truth and reality is complex and has multiple aspects.
Getting back to know-it-all(s) and non know-it-all(s) , There is almost a clear thread that joins the best in their respective businesses! And that is the ability to accept that what they are seeing is not all.
This is so important to realize especially in this age and time because we are living in echo chambers of the Internet. Social media (our source of information) reflects back to us. It shows us the kind of content we have previously seen. This means you will know more of what you already know.
You are basically, zooming down on one locality of the map and thinking you know the whole country! No, the country has slums too, it has forests too and it has things that we haven’t even discovered.
Your watching cricket does not make you a cricket specialist. Your watching mock interviews of UPSC doesn’t qualify you as an UPSC expert. And your male ego doesn’t explain why women are raped across the spectrum, no matter the length of their skirts! What about the little girls who don’t know what rape is?
Remember, the MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY!
