“The map is not the territory.” – Alfred Korzybski

“All maps lie.” – Julio Rivera, Ph.D.

These two quotes have been rattling around in my head all day. I love maps. I really do. I accidentally minored in geography because I love maps. It probably started when my grandparents gave me the National Geographic World Atlas when I turned 4. It was an odd gift for a four-year old, but far from the strangest they ever gave me (that’s a story for another time). But perhaps, given these two quotes, I should reconsider my affinity for cartography.  

We have maps because territories themselves are much too large, complex, and nuanced to fully comprehend. So we miniaturize. We simplify and codify reality into something that we can understand. Therein lies the problem. As soon as we tidy it up into something we can grasp, the map itself ceases to be the territory. Our picture of the world is no longer the world itself. What’s worse is our picture of the world is lying to us right from the beginning.

“So what?” you might say. “Google Maps may not be the real world, but it always gets me to my destination.” (Unless you’re my mom in which case you’re happy with the 1984 edition of the Rand McNally Road Atlas.) The thing is this goes way beyond driving directions.

What other maps do you use? What lies are those maps telling you? Who is the author of those lies? Are they as reliable as Rand McNally or Google? Do they always get you where you’re going?

I’ll bet you have dozens, maybe hundreds of “mental maps” that guide you every day.

• You’ve got your relationship maps that instruct you on how to navigate interactions with your spouse, kids, family, coworkers, customers, suppliers, neighbors, etc. The features of this map might show you peaks and valleys, potholes and smooth roads, dead ends and speed traps.
• There’s the map of the political landscape where you live. With its left and right hemispheres clearly marked.
• The decision-making map shows you good and bad, right and wrong, up and down.
• Your conflict-resolution map might help you decide between fight and flight, attack and forgive, compromise or stick to your guns.

We trust these maps. They’re how we find our bearings in a variety of situations. They define left & right, up & down, right & wrong. They help us find order in chaos. They simplify complex situations into something we can understand. They help us see the forest through the trees (or “for the trees” however that saying goes).

But, they aren’t the territory itself. They aren’t reality. They’re just maps. Maps that we ourselves create. Maps that lie. They don’t always get us to our destination. And while I’m busy acting on the basis of the unreal, lying map I’ve created, everyone around me is doing the same.

There are a couple of potential issues caused by each of us running around with our self-created, untrue, lying maps. First, these maps sometimes put us on a collision course with one another. With nothing but these maps to rely on, both parties think they have the right of way. Neither willing to yield. This happens when people come to believe that they have some privileged perspective on reality resulting in a superior map. This belief is carried forward into a conviction that all those with different maps are either stupid or evil. Second, our own personally distorted view of reality closes us off to the existence of anything that is not on our map. Just like the lack of a Starbucks on every corner in my mom’s 1984 Rand McNally doesn’t negate their existence, the fact that something isn’t on your map doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or that it isn’t on someone else’s map.  Your map isn’t the territory.

There are a couple of things that you can do:

1. Admit that the map you authored isn’t the territory. It is a lie. It may be well-intentioned, but it isn’t reality.
2. Accept the fact that other people have their own map. It may lie in ways that your map tells the truth, but it’s equally likely to tell the truth in ways that your map lies.
3. Recognize the fact that other people might not have read my wise words here and you are therefore more enlightened about the fact that you’re lying to yourself. With this enlightenment comes responsibility.
4. Invite others to share their map with you. Perhaps together you can form a better picture of the territory.
5. After all of it remember the wise words with which we started. “The map is not the territory.” And, “All maps lie.”

This is a great clip from the TV series “The West Wing” that will illustrate the point about maps and entertain you at the same time.