A model is a map of something you are trying to explain. Models are conveyed through language. They are created through a set of abstractions and if successful they are codified and widely used. The model is still an abstraction, it is not the thing which it is modeling. For example the Menu in a restraunt is a model of the meal..but the menu is not the meal itself.
Different models that were useful at points in time of history:
- The sun was worshipped as a God (Our god's the sun god, our god's the fun god, Ra Ra Ra;))
- The earth was flat
- The earth was round and the solar system revolved around it
- Light is a wave
- Light is a particle
To keep you conversations healthy with others you might want to start trying to use this model as a technique to understand where that other person is talking from.
- According to my current modeling, i feel that...
- From my point of view, it seems to me that...
- In my modeling, it seems that...
Make sure that you don't get to infatuated with your own model. Remember that its important to see the errors of your perception and to integrate them in to a better formed model. Models are created, used and discarded all the time. Don't fall prey to Modeltheism.