How many colors are there in the rainbow?

Did the number seven come to your mind?  Think again and look at the image clearly, can you see it has millions of colors? Still, If you are not convinced,  you can validate this from the data of Spectrophotometer.  

Number seven is also not totally wrong, you can call them as seven primary predominant blocks of color. The seven primary colors are RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET, and from these primary colors we can create millions of colors.

But, Why did the number seven come to your mind when you think of the rainbow?

The reason is due to the working of the brain. In order to processes, large amounts of data and information the brain simplifies the input and stores them as concepts. These concepts are linked by categories and patterns (in this case Colours is a concept and the primary colors are patterns).

This complex processing can be demonstrated as below.

Input :

Brain simplifies the representation of the complex world and stores as (mental) models

World    —————-> induction   ———-> Simplification

In the same way, the brain uses deduction to interpret the world using its models or simplifications.

Similarly, the reverse happens through deduction.

Output:

To interpret the world the brain converts the simplifications through deduction and creates a sense of reality.  

Simplifications ———> Deduction ———-> World

Your view of the world (Simplifications) is a constructed based on the context and the mental models, beliefs, and values.

The real world (Reality) is given (it exists as it is), it is complex, uncertain, unstable, and contains a vast amount of information and data. The brain balances/limits the amount of information that it can process.

But it is important to note that, you have a sense of the reality or your interpretation of the real world. Hence two people react differently to the same situation.

So all the Models are the simplification of the real world. It is an abstraction from the past and sometimes a base to build the future.A proper structure and a language will help in developing robust models and interpretation of the real world.

UML is a good example of a notation that helped in developing models and developing software systems. The whole concepts of Object Oriented Analysis and Design is a mechanism for simplification of the real world.

This understanding of models, simplification, and deduction helps in analyzing and implementing models and framework like CMMI, Scrum, SAFe or LeSS.  The initiatives sometimes don’t yield expected results due to our inability process these models and convert them into useful practices, structures for the organization.  

This phenomenon is elegantly summarized by statistician George Box

 “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful”.

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Some interesting links

All models are wrong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

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Raghavendra (Raghav) Mithare  – rmithare@processwhirl.com