* Borges's 'On Exactitude in Science' [0] about a map that is as large and as precise as the territory, which renders it useless;
* the wonderful Eschaton scene in Infinite Jest [1], with Pemulis screaming: "It’s snowing on the goddamn map, not the territory, you dick!
This point gets made enough over time that one suspects it's an enduring trait of our cognition to mistake the two. It certainly comes up when people present and talk about epidemiology models.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpfK7l404I -- I think this Decembrists music video does Eschaton wonderfully.
I read an assertion recently that of all the "markets" in human civilization/culture, the financial one is the only one where we have truly have brought maximum resource and human capital to bear. With that in mind, no one is ever surprised when the next fat tail undoes hundreds of millions in mere moments, even when the capital was managed by ostensibly "smart" individuals.
The map is certainly not the territory there, but for the average individual they're going to have a hard time understanding the map, the territory, the map legend, anecdotes about the map etc...
Are you thinking of this book?
If I had to name the single epistemic feat at which modern human civilization is most adequate, the peak of all human power of estimation, I would unhesitatingly reply, “Short-term relative pricing of liquid financial assets, like the price of S&P 500 stocks relative to other S&P 500 stocks over the next three months.” This is something into which human civilization puts an actual effort.
It's true in many fields of engineering and scientific research, including geography and map-making. Just see how complex Geographic Information Systems [0] (basically computerized maps) have became.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system
The financial markets may be the biggest intelligent entity that ever existed.
The only way to second guess them is to figure out a tru theory, and NOT PUBLISH IT. I expect there are many such theories producing a lot of wealth to people who don't talk about it.
"When the map and the terrain disagree; believe the terrain."
It features in this screed I wrote: https://medium.com/chrismarshallny/concrete-galoshes-a5798a5...
(Scroll down to "Story Time." It's in that section.)
I also enjoyed learning about Farnam Street. I've bookmarked it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_of_Null-A#Publicatio...
http://theskinner.blogspot.com/2020/06/destination-universe-...
1. We have many maps, models, or concepts - different ways of viewing the same situation. How we choose which map is often more important than the overall accuracy of our maps. Changing perspective often beats getting more accurate data.
2. There is no reason to have any emotional or sentimental attachment to one’s knowledge. Think of “your knowledge” the same way you would think of “your map collection”. Edit (or discard) them with extreme prejudice!
So while I get your point, I wonder how much people miss the map due to obscure knowledge requirements and think it doesn't exist.
Such well-specific label territories are often artificial. Your Facebook social graph is a poor proxy for your actual IRL social network (or whose opinions you interact with the most, etc)
Big bureaucratic organizations (or other less responsive intelligences) often try to force the territory to conform to the map, for convenience of steering, but it seems like there is a significant map/territory mismatch in the generally interesting/important cases.
MAXIM 2: A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.
MAXIM 3: An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
how to use maps in business
