The trouble with "I"

As an engineer, I'm used to creating mathematical "models" that stand for something else, something real that is always infinitely more complex.  For example, the engineer creates a model of moving air.  It can do a fair job of predicting roughly how fast real air will flow, with what pressure it flows, and at what temperature.  But it is falls far short of truly describing moving air.  The wind is infinitely more complex and interesting than anything an engineer can model.

Similarly, the concept of "I" is a "model" that represents the real me.  It can do a fair job of predicting my emotions, my actions, and my physical limitations.  But the real person is infinitely more complex than the "model" of the person called "I".

So what is the trouble with "I"?  Almost everyone, myself included, forgets that "I" is just a model.  All the labels I attach to myself are just models.  They leave out so much of what is going on in me physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Similarly, my thought of who "you" are leaves out 99% of who "you" really are.  This is what the linguists are talking about when they say "the map is not the territory" and "the word is not the thing".  When we confuse our words and labels for reality, we live in a world that is far less rich than the real one.