Day #741 - Abstractions and Truths

How things are useful, until they are not

Yesterday I heard a lot of people talking about the transformation of their Organisations, the pressures on their leaders, and the impacts of Generative AI. Words like ‘values’, ‘authenticity’, ‘trust’, and ‘culture’ were used, often with great conviction. And rightly so: we use these tokens to express our intent, to share a perspective, and to plan for action.

But our intention and hope does not make them real, reliable, replicable, or true.

These things are judgements, or abstractions, often useful, but not to be mistaken for rocks (which are certainly real) or gravity (which empirically acts upon them).

Or to put it another way: these things are useful and true, up to a point. But in our diagnostics, planning, and activity, we must always be mindful of where the gaps may occur, or where understanding can be polluted.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider this: how do you know the things that you know?

Were you given that understanding, or did you create it somehow inside your head? And if it was created, are you sure that it’s the same as what I created in my own head?

Useful abstractions are a great help, but we must always remember that they are neither universal, not strictly true.