The Ghost in the Map 🧭

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:52:51 -0400

Making a marketing strategy is a bit like making a map.

You plot the landscape. You mark the features you deem noteworthy.
You create potential paths between them.

Ultimately you end with a starting point, a destination, a recommended route between the two, and maybe a couple back up routes. (And hopefully a measurement system that lets you know when you get where you’re going.)

But just like the trap of proxy metrics, it’s important to remember:

Maps don’t show reality, they give you a way of visualizing it.

And much like a strategy or plan:

Every map focuses on some things and leaves other things out. Making a map means making choices about what’s important to you. What the world is really, truly like in every single detail doesn’t matter; what matters is what specifically about the world you want to show. Orientation’s part of that—it can help emphasize what information is significant. And you can orient a map however you want, as long anyone else who needs to read it can figure out how to orient it too.

from Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford 📚

Strategy & Operating Notes on CuriousMarketers.Club

The Ghost in the Map 🧭