202203210832 Models are necessarily incomplete

Making a model is the process of simplifying reality into a useful reasoning tool. Our goal is not to capture all of reality perfectly (we already have that ability by existing in that reality). Our goal is to be more useful — to cut through the noise — but this is exactly why they’re incomplete and prone to failure or bias.¹

Once the model is useful as a simplified description of reality, we can start using it for its purpose. However, the only way to tell if our incomplete models work is by continuously comparing them with messy reality (202203210831 Models are immutable but reality isn't and 202203210830 When your model and reality conflict, reality is always right).