Korzybski

Of course our illustrious program director Abraham Verghese, a writer, would know of Alfred Korzybski and tell us the famous quote, "The map is not the territory." It took me some time to understand what he meant. He says this when referring to studying versus practicing medicine. The map - that is, the books: Harrison's, Cecil's, UpToDate - is not the same thing as the territory - the patients themselves. And no matter how hard we study the maps, the experience is not the same as the practice of the thing itself. In medical school, we are cartographers. In residency, we become explorers.