Descriptions Aren't Prescriptions
Farnam Street (Shane Parrish) · 2020
"A representation of reality (a map, a grammar book, a law, a mental model) can be read either descriptively (this is how things currently are) or prescriptively (this is how things must be) — confusing the two, especially when the description becomes outdated, causes real, avoidable problems."
A description tells you how something currently is (a snapshot); a prescription tells you how something should be (a rule to follow) — the same document (a grammar book, a map, a law, a corporate process doc) can start as an accurate description and, left unchanged while the underlying reality keeps evolving, quietly turn into an outdated prescription that people follow out of habit or authority rather than because it still fits the territory.
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