The Map Is Not the Territory
Every model discards detail in order to be usable, and the discarded detail is where it will eventually fail you. Accounting statements, factor models and industry categories are all maps drawn by someone with a purpose. Knowing what a model leaves out is the difference between using it and being used by it.
11 books · 3 people behind it · 4 resources
Start here
- The Great Mental Models Volume 1Shane Parrish, 2019
- The Model ThinkerScott E. Page, 2018
- The Black SwanNassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007
The people behind it 3
Each person holds a book in this entry or names it in their own tags.
Academics 2
Journalists 1
Resources 4
- The Map Is Not the TerritoryShane Parrish · essay · Every model discards detail; know what yours dropped.
- All Models Are WrongShane Parrish · essay · Box's dictum applied to business and market models.
- Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent DecisionsShane Parrish · essay · The latticework framing and a working index of models.
- Examining Valuation MultiplesMichael J. Mauboussin · paper · What a multiple is really a shorthand for.
Books 11
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · 2007
Donella H. Meadows · 2008
Ludwig Wittgenstein · 1921 · The limits of language and what can be said precisely
Emanuel Derman · 2011 · A quant on confusing models with reality, in finance and life
Daniel C. Dennett · 2013 · Dennett's toolkit of thought experiments for reasoning carefully
Umberto Eco · 1997 · Eco on how we categorise the world and where categories fail
T3 Invariances
Robert Nozick · 2001 · Nozick on objectivity and what stays invariant across perspectives
John Brockman · 2012 · Short essays on the scientific concepts most worth adopting