Maps matter.

Especially in cognitive psychology (thanks to Dave Lull).

In practice, cognitive maps for decision making don’t tell you where to go or how to navigate in every specific case or at every point in time; instead, they provide sign posts, indicators of contours and textures, notes about landscapes, and other framework-related notions such as social-scaffolding nodes, platforms, outlines, and forewarnings. Maps provide information for people to make choices in their particular situations: maps serve as choice architecture.

But that does not mean that all maps are created equal. It also does not mean that all maps are useful. Personally, when given the choice, I prefer to move about the world without a map rather than to rely on the wrong map: I don’t want a false-sense-of-security or a false-confidence in the wrong map to lead me off the edge of a cliff like a lemming. Rather, I want a map that assists me in negative Black Swan avoidance while positioning me with exposure to the envelope of serendipity so that I can capture positive Black Swan hits along the way.