Map vs Territory

Map and Territory is a metaphor for belief and reality

  • Alfred Korzybski

Some of the biggest mistakes in life would inform me about how different my belief and reality. You might think that moving to netherlands far away from parents is going to be epic. You might think that just that you are in a foreign land that is not India, getting girls would be so much more easier. You might remember your friend saying, “Macha, just because you are in foreign land why is it going to change who you really are?”. 46000 Euros later, you realize how wrong you were. Your Map completely having misguided you. If only you had a better Map that determined the actual Territory. In another unrelated event, burnt 25k rs for a CAD course, which I thought was going to be useful. 25k! Poof!

Heuristics and Biases

To determine the exact reality can be costly. Given a super computer, and a full understanding of the human brain and the physics of the earth it should be possible to determine by simulation, what could be the reality ;). But we don’t have such resources. We have a finite sized brain, with finite computation ability. Our brain gathers information via our sensory organs such as eyes, skin etc., and forms its own map using Heuristics & Biases (H&Bs). These H&Bs are passed on and “improved” through evolution. To an extent they are hardwired into our system. Rather than making hard computations to get to know the actual territory, the brain uses simple design rules to form its map. For example, one of the H&Bs is called social proof.

Social proof is the phenomenon where people assume actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This is especially observed in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to decide appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people posses more knowledge about the situation. -Wikipedia

Popular temples, football stadiums, music concerts, sitcoms with laughter tracks, and political rallies are some sites where we can observe social proof. When several thousand people do an activity, we seem to believe that the activity is something we should be doing as well. In India bursting crackers is a big deal on the day of Diwali. Somehow bursting crackers the very next day or a week later, does not seem to create the same enthusiasm as on the day of Diwali. Social proof starts to work based on the assumption that the people surrounding you should be Correct. The action in the end needn’t be Correct. It is easy to imagine that the pollution as a result of bursting crackers can be harmful to people and dogs, say in the long run. But you know who cares to investigate it. Social proof shall prevail over irrespective of Right or Wrong?

Potential issues with a faulty Map

Brains are flawed by making such decisions. We should realize that and work towards improving our map to match the territory as much as possible say for example, by overcoming the bias. Trump thinks that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by China, when 97% of the climate scientists have reason to believe we are super fucked already. His map, it appears, would reflect nothing close to reality. His decisions hence can be brutal to the country. He can speed up global warming and when its effects completely materialize we might be mightily unprepared resulting in the loss of many lives. Why would you want to live in a dream land far away from reality, when the laws of reality will eventually prevail and fuck you up. We want to be as close as possible to the reality.

Wars are going on. Innocent people are getting fucked. Animal cruelty is at an all time high. Global warming is happening. Super high pollution levels. We don’t know if we have sustainable lifestyles. Are all these problems going to take care of themselves? Should we believe that someone else will take care of it? But Why? Maybe they are waiting for you to take care of it? You seem to be not too worried about it. Your actions - which are a result of your Map - seem to be focusing on first world problems like your lack of cooldom and your inability to get girls. To say the least it appears that the Map is wrong or atleast needs recalibration.

Its Urgent

There is a need to act on it today. I have only about 4 more years to pick up new skills, with each skill demanding 10k hours. I need to understand the type of career moves I need to make so that I am able to maximize my impact on this world and act on it. I need to collect more information on the Territory and make my decisions based on the Territory. Everything is going to take time and I better use all the time I have now to first understand what I need to do and then do it.

Now what

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” –Illaythalabathy Albus Dumbledore.

Right! In order to make the right decisions, our current map seems insufficient. Accepted! At this point it seems that earning as much money and planning to learn skills that will be essential seem to be the number one things, if the prophecy(explained in another post) is true.

Next I am not going to be able to do it in the light of H&Bs: H&Bs are constantly going to make you feel like a loser. You suck with girls, you have no social life, no stories to tell, you don’t travel. I don’t feel like writing in the week and spend a lot of time on FB and Youtube. In an attempt to speeden the truth finding task, I begin with making two more posts of 1000 words each by the end of tomorrow. Of course, we measure by the ends and not the means. Its not about how many posts you write, but say the number of arguments clearly explained?