maps

Maps are not the territory. This is necessary, otherwise they are useless.

Consider a map for driving to a destination several hundred miles distant. If we "improve" the map to make the sale 1 inch to 1 inch, then the map would be so large that we could not read it! We would need another map to guide us around this map. The map would be hundreds of miles wide, remember... and by virtue of this "improvement" in its accuracy, would be totally useless.

In design science and engineering, models are useful precisely because they leave out some detail. This simplifies and removes unnecessary, potentially distracting and irrelevant information.