My objection to this view is that, a "thing" is not the same thing as the data that represents it, and what data you use to represent the thing is dependent on

My objection to this view is that, a "thing" is not the same thing as the data that represents it, and what data you use to represent the thing is dependent on what you intend to do with it. I think object-oriented programmers are more prone than others to wrongly equate their model with the thing they are modelling; the paradigm almost encourages that. I found this talk by Rich Hickey very persuasive: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hickey/ https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hi....