It is very easy to get confused between:
- What is really going on
- What we think is going on
Let's call the first of these "reality", and the second our "mental model". We don't ordinarily get to perceive reality directly; we operate primarily in terms of our mental model. Our mental model ideally reflects reality, but it would be arrogant to assume that it perfectly models all of reality.
This is very similar to the relationship between London itself, and a map of it. The purpose of a map of London is to provide a tool to assist in understanding some aspect of London. For a map to be useful, it must be simpler than London itself; if this wasn't the case, it would be just as easy to understand it by studying London directly. This means that to create a useful map, some details must intentionally be left out.
Many such maps might exist that look very different from one another, but are all accurate and have distinct value. For example, the Tube Map doesn't look like a street map, but they are both useful for different purposes.
When multiple valid maps can exist for the same territory, this allows for inconsistencies between maps without invalidating their usefulness for specific tasks.