domains / families / general / thinking-map-territory

thinking-map-territory

separate

When a claim, doc, test, metric, or assumption conflicts with observed behavior, stop theorizing from the map and verify the live code or data; let territory overrule.

When to use

• Observed behavior contradicts a doc, test expectation, diagram, comment, dashboard, or prior assumption.
• A claim about the system rests on a secondary source rather than current code or data.
• Tests pass but production or manual behavior is wrong.
• You are about to theorize why something happens before inspecting what happens.
• A decision depends on whether a model, schema, or metric is still current.

When not to use

• The map is the artifact you are asked to edit (doc, diagram, spec) — that artifact is the task territory.
• Same path already verified this session — reuse that observation.
• Map is authoritative and generative (codegen types, derived schema) with no claimed drift.
• The mismatch cannot change the decision — note and move on.
• Competing causal hypotheses after territory is confirmed — switch to scientific-method.
• Security exploit construction — use red-team; this skill only settles model-versus-observation.

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