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NLP Travels

The map was not the territory

I have written a number of articles on the NLP phrase The Map is not the Territory, (click here to read some of them), but yesterday it became a reality.

All my working life I have had to visit customers in strange towns and cities, in countries where I could not speak or the language so I could not read the road signs, where they drove on the wrong side of the road, and I always get there, even before the advent of mobile telephones, GPS and satellite navigation.
Today when I visit 1-2-1 clients in their home, for phobias or fears, addresses I have never been to before, I would find my way, reading a map, asking for directions, transcribing instructions into my own shorthand which I can read at a glance when driving, planning ahead.
Since the coming of satellite navigation aids, like Tom Tom, and I have installed one on my PDA/mobile phones (Another gadget – I love gadgets), I have used this means of navigation successfully, only once being sent to drive across a railway line which was for walkers only. My fault I had the wrong settings.
Here in Malaysia, I have not got a satellite navigation system, there are no A-Z road maps published that are up-to-date or even published at all, and the old friend we were to visit from days gone passed in Saudi Arabia, could not give verbal instructions as to get to her house in Ipoh, a town I had never visited before, she could only give her address.
Armed with this information, her home address, I searched the internet, surely there would be a means to find directions.
Sure enough, and the only one, was Google, which gave a highlighted map and written instructions.
The written instructions were a little confusing to me as the street names meant nothing to me. Jalan? Bulatan? Distances were given in kilometers and meters, meaning nothing to me, my brain works in miles and yards.
Our friend we were to visit had said that when we exited from the North-South Highway, we would within 50 meters come across a big shopping complex of Jusco and Tesco, she would meet us there, but she failed to say take the second exit from the North-South Highway, and as per the Google map instructions we took the first, so there was no shopping complex nor Jusco or Tesco.
No problem, we had the map and instructions, and I had asked that each new direction be given a long time before I reached the turning or junction so that I could plan ahead, reading out the distances, so I could gauge in my head and on the map where we were.
All was fine. Then one instruction said “Turn right at Jalan Pasir Puteh” after 1.4km. There was a set of traffic lights with a right filter, but I could see no road name, so I turned right. It must be a major road to have traffic lights. We were to proceed 3.4 km.
The road came to an abrupt end, it literally ended at the base of a wall surrounding a house after 2km. Obviously this was the wrong right turn.
So back I went to the traffic lights. 50m further on was another set of traffic lights, with a right filter, and as I approached, I could see the road name Jalan Pasir Puteh mentioned in the written instructions.
Go 3.4km the instructions said, and we could notice landmarks on the printed map as we drove past.  The map was correct, we were going in the right direction.

Ipoh Map

Actual location marked with the arrow.
Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 
Looking at the map and instructions, it said “Turn right
at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6“, and although I could not see a road name sign, there was a row of shops or buildings and the turning on the printed map, so I turned into the road.
The printed map clearly showed to take the fourth right after entering Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6, and there was a big marker, “B” which showed the destination.
The written instructions told something different. “Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 5” then “Turn left at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8“.
The map and the written instructions did not equate, they gave different instructions.
I followed the map, as it had been correct so far. but the passengers in the car followed the written instructions.
Our maps we were using, the representations of the real world were different.
Not only were the written instructions and the pictorial representations we were using different, but they did not correspond to the real world, or to reality.
Yes, using the pictorial map we arrived at Pengkalan Barat 8, but it was not Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 but Persarian Pengkalan Barat 8.
NOTE. Jalan means in Malay (language) “large road”, but taken to mean “Main Road”, whereas Persarian means a “playground”.
After much searching we eventually found the correct street, certainly not the one indicated by the pictorial map, and not the one in the written instructions. See map above and the black arrow, compared to theB“.
Maps and instructions are guides. We have to be there, we have to experience the real world to make absolute sense of the real world around us.
Even then, it will be our own representation, our own understanding of what we have seen, heard or experienced, not other peoples.
So, The Map was not the Territory.
    WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS

16. At Bulatan Bahagia, take the 2nd exit onto Jalan Leong Boon Swee     1.4 km 
17. Turn right at Jalan Pasir Puteh                                                                        3.4 km 
18. Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6                                                            0.3 km 
19. Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 5                                                            61 m 
20. Turn left at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 
              Destination will be on the left                                                                    14 m 

                   Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8, Taman Pasir Putih, 31650 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia