“Here’s a metaphor to help you get a sense for how this complicated thing functions.”
“But it’s not really doing that!”
“That’s why it’s a metaphor, not a description.”
…
“Here’s an explanation in layman’s terms.”
“No, that’s wrong, that term only means this specific thing when used in the relevant technical jargon.”
“I’m not speaking to people who use the jargon, I’m speaking to the general public, who use the term in a much broader sense than you do.”
…
And then there’s the flip side:
“I learned this thing was simple. These edge cases can’t possibly exist.”
“You learned the simplified version. The real thing is more complicated.”
…
As the saying goes, The map is not the territory. The map isn’t complete, but that doesn’t make it wrong either, as long as you don’t insist that the real things that aren’t on your map must not be there.
