The map is not the territory

from a wonderfully indepth powerpoint deck by Cristiano Damiani Vasconcellos

Language is powerful. Stunningly so. The language we use about ourselves and others can fundamentally change our perception of reality.

Tip of the hat (or, as cyclists say, chapeau) to David D’Souza today for sharing on Twitter a wonderful and in-depth article from Farnam Street explaining the background to this concept and giving me a nudge to share it with readers.

René Magritte’s: “this is not a pipe” brings our attention to what is and is not true from our language. What we say and believe (the map) does not make it real (the territory).

The more awareness we bring to language, the more we can reduce the gap between the drawing of the pipe and the pipe itself, between the map and the territory, the menu and the meal.

Let’s take confidence as a theme I see often in clients. Once they start to believe they lack confidence, they tend to further embed that lack of confidence by using language that reinforces it, even if objective and measurable elements in their life and work (the reality, the “territory”) actually shows them to be much more confident in certain areas than they thought they were.

Now, we can get into scientific detail around this concept, as the powerpoint linked to the…