Categorization

This is a little off from my usual topics, but here’s an article on categorization by Emily Drabinski that’s worth the time. It relates to our work in a fairly straightforward way: physical reality around us does not have categories, but rather we create them and impose them in order to better understand reality. This includes such categories as “frame buildings,” “code-compliant,” “non-combustable,” and “safe.” These words describe categories that have real definitions, but those definitions do not describe reality but only our models of reality.

In the end, we do the best we can with our models because physical reality is stubbornly resistant to us.