How Maps Mislead

Mental models create predictable blind spots:

• Oversimplification — models shrink complexity into tidy categories, but reality lives in the details that got simplified away
• Outdated maps — the territory changes faster than the map. Your model of a person, market, or technology may reflect a past reality, not today's
• Map addiction — people grow attached to their models and resist updating them even when evidence piles up against them
• Category errors — treating model categories as real divisions. "Introvert" and "extrovert" are useful labels, not actual types of people.