The Map Is Not the Territory
The Map Is Not the Territory is a principle from general semantics, formulated by Alfred Korzybski in 1931, that describes the relationship between mental models and reality. All models β maps, theories, frameworks, financial projections, organizational charts β are simplifications of reality. They are useful precisely because they simplify. But they are also incomplete, and the gaps between the map and the territory are where decisions fail. The model warns against treating any representation of reality as if it were reality itself.