When exploring an uncharted island, we know exactly what we're going to find. We'll find familiar geographic features: mountains, rivers, lakes, valleys, beaches, forests, etc. Only on the rarest of occasions will we find something we haven't seen before, like, say, a geyser. What we don't know about the uncharted island is how many of which geographic features there will be and how each feature will manifest itself. How many mountains and valleys will there be and how high and deep are they? We know the big picture but not the details. Despite what we don't know, exploring islands does not require we come up with a new mapping technique for each island. Information exists naturally as a direct reflection of reality. It is there to be discovered based on the natural rules and manifestations of information. Conventional systems are neither the map nor the terrain. Nor are they reflections of them. They are artificial constructs that are substantially off-point. Yes, we get some benefit from them which is why we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Busy designing instead of discovering, conventional system development never gets a firm picture of the information it is supposed to manage ... and doesn't know it. Any attempt to design an information system inevitably distorts and contaminates information. We can design a vehicle, but not the terrain. Terrain can only be discovered once we understand exactly what we're looking for and learn to recognize it when we see it.
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