Books, teachings, maps, and self-development

Published on August 13, 2025 11:44 AM GMTA book is like a map. It describes a certain terrain. Even fictional books may describe a real-world terrain, sometimes unwittingly, but I mainly have non-fiction in mind, and metaphorical maps.When I consult a map, there is a vital piece of information I must obtain, before the map will be useful to me. It is the first thing that Google Maps puts on the screen, even before it's downloaded the map data. It's the blue dot: where am I? Until I know where I am on the map, I cannot use the map to find my way.The GPS hardware on the phone tells Google Maps where I am. But there is no GPS for the mind. When I pick up a book, it is up to me to find where I am on the author's map by looking for some part of it that matches terrain that I know.Every book or teaching is addressed to an imaginary person in the author's head, some idea of where "most people" are, or "the sort of people" he wants to reach. But there is https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us-air-force-discovered-the-flaw-of-averages.html

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