Models are useful, but they’re not the world

From Emanuel Derman’s book “Models. Behaving. Badly.” and the Modeler’s Hippocratic Oath:

•  “I will remember that I didn’t make the world, and it doesn’t satisfy my equations.”

• “Though I will use the models I or others create to boldly estimate value, I will always look over my shoulder and never forget that the model is not the world.”

• “I will make the assumptions and oversights explicit to all who use them.”

(p. 198)

Models are useful, but they’re not the world.

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I’m Christopher Berry.
I write at christopherberry.ca