Michael Kaufman
In just a moment you will be hearing about some research but first, what's this?
What is a model?
- Tangible representation.
- An example.
- How it “should” be.
- Ideal.
- A symbol.
- A Process.
- Often three dimensional.
- Usually evidence based.
- You can learn from them.
- A way to communicate.
- A simulation of something else.
Does a model contain all of the information of the thing that it represents? No. By definition, a model must contain less information than what it represents.
What does that tell us about the model makers?
- They have to make decisions about what is relevant.
- They have to determine what should be included and what should be excluded.
Why do we make and use models?
- You can hold it in your hand.
- You can see something you couldn’t otherwise.
- You can test something.
- You can use it to teach.
- You can prototype and change.
- You can measure something.
- You can provide a guide.
- You can make mistakes with them!
- You can do things with models that you could not do with the actual object.
We as humans make mistakes. As a western culture, we don’t encourage mistakes to be made.
What are some of the models that we use all of the time?
- Medical models.
- Organization models.
- Roadmaps.
- Flight simulators.
- The market.
- Procedures.
- Calendar.
- Watch.
- Government.
- Credit cards.
- Words.
What happens when two people are talking with one another?
- They are expressing their models to one another and then they interpret what they hear. Each is symbolically representing what they are saying and what they are hearing.
- There is more than just words that is being communicated.
- There are concepts that are being transferred or shared between two people.
When two people are talking, we call this model conflict. The two models are bumping into one another.
What are the possible outcomes of that conflict?
- One model changes.
- Merge models.
- Capitulation – one model dominates.
- Indifference – “you have a model of how spaceships land and I don’t care”.
- Compromise.
- You can just have two models.
- A third model is created. Persuasion. Negotiating.
- What is the trap in models and model making?
- There is theory and there is reality and reality always slaps theory upside the head. You don’t know what you don’t know.
- You can get too close the model – we call that model fixation and the brain will actually stop taking in new information when it happens.
- Mistaking the model for the thing that it represents.
- Prognosticate with the content of model.
- A model can be context specific.
There is no such thing as a perfect model, some models are useful.