All Models Are Wrong (Part 1 of 4)

“Remember that all models are wrong; the question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.”

-George Box 

Often, pivotal growth happens when we examine our lives and choose to discard an idea, belief, practice, or relationship that is no longer useful.

We would never intentionally discard anything that we believed to be perfect. Most of us believe the things that we hold close to us to be perfect, or nearly so. 

Therein lies the problem.

If we are not actively searching for ways in which things we hold close could be problematic, if we are not trying to break our models, we are holding ourselves back from becoming a more actualized version of ourselves. 

In a series of blogs, I’m going to attempt to break down why it is so dangerous to not challenge the people, places, and things in our lives that we subscribe to and why it is so important to consider what we are holding onto that might be holding us back. 

I think that it is always easier to start outside of ourselves. It’s also easier to start with superficial examples before we get deep, which is where we find ourselves now…

If you were around in the 90’s, you remember Blockbuster. That place was fucking magical. They figured out the consumer’s needs, crafted a uniquely wonderful experience, and built a model that was infallible…

OK, you see where I’m going with this. Had Blockbuster been willing to admit that their system was just one approach to a problem, one way to fill a market need, they could have taken the perspective that their model was not in its final iteration and could be improved upon. 

Now, instead of making a lasting impression in the game Blockbuster’s, legacy is an old logo emblazoned on the dirty tee shirts of young people trying to be ironic. 

This example is the kind of thing that’s easy to armchair quarterback. Everyone wants to talk about how Blockbuster could have read the market and stayed a household name. Very few of us want to acknowledge or search out the Netflix in our lives that might serve to redirect our course.