The problem with knowledge, part deux

In keeping with the theme of maps started by the now extremely famous Miss Teen South Carolina (she should think about a book and movie deal given the amount of press her answer has seen), Isabel (over at God Plays Dice), wrote an interesting post on ways of drawing the US Interstate Highway system.

In particular, she references this map. This is a simplified version of the system.

When you go into a service station and try to find a map in the US, you can't buy this one. Yet, it strikes me as a MORE effective way of displaying interstate routes than a map with exacting coordinates and relationships.

You just don't need to store the level of detail found on a conventional map to understand or navigate your way through this system. This map is perhaps the best internal representation of what most people probably know - the general direction and position of these roads.

When we abstract away layers of knowledge to more efficiently store it for what we USE it for, the details become lost. Testing our knowledge of the details, no matter how simple the test, is ridiculous. When asked to recreate the US highway system, I am sure many people would try and curve roads around landmarks, lakes, mountains, farms fields etc. and scratch their head when they can't quite remember how this or that road curves. Not realizing that a straight grid and a few semi-circles is all they actually know, and need to know.

When you do research on product and brand attributes you see the same effect. While most marketers believe consumers are aware of every differentiating feature of their product/brand, most consumers have already abstracted away these differences into broader 'maps'. 'Maps' anchored by the things they care about the most.

The faster we realize that our heads aren't full of facts waiting to be regurgitated at a moments notice, the fewer stumped Miss Teen South Carolinas there will be.

That's a good thing, right?

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