on geography

[calimac]

B. will be driving off soon to a several-day workshop in a town a couple hours drive from here, which is considerably outside our regular traveling orbit. (I've been to the area a few times.) As I am geographically enabled, while she is not, I wrote out detailed step-by-step driving directions to the specific locales to which she's traveling.

Looking over and marking up these directions, she asked me, "Do you memorize directions to where you're going?"

I said: "No. I keep a little map in my head and I navigate off of that. Directions of the kind I gave you I don't find very helpful. If someone gives them to me, I look them up on a map and memorize the map. But I know that a lot of people prefer written directions, so I'm happy to provide those if that's what they want."

And that's what it means to be a spatially-oriented person.

Comments

[pink_halen]

Some people seem compass challenged. My mother in law never wants to be given directions that involve turning North or South. She only wants Right or Left. That's not always that easy.

I usually look up the map on google before I leave but don't bother to print or transfer it to a phone unless it is very complicated.

If I have been to a place once, I can usually return.

I was surprised recently at how dependent people are on Google on their phones. The cab company had to have the street address of the hospital. That surprised me because major landmarks like a 20 story hospital should be just somewhere that you know without an address.

[calimac]

AAA insists on a street address for their emergency services. This can be challenging when you're out in the countryside, or on a freeway.

[bibliofile]

I too can customize directions to how people understand them best. Ordinal directions, left/right, & visual landmarks are all options. (ETA: I work off of visual landmarks a lot, which isn't so helpful for giving directions to places I've been only once.)

It wasn't until I was thirty, I think, that I found out that some people can't read paper maps. It explained a lot about our family driving vacations.

[wild_patience]

I am most definitely compass-challenged. I blame it on growing up in the bay area. No matter which direction you take on 280, it will eventually take you north.

I need left/right. Compasses make no sense to me.

[athenais]

This is why I never use GPS. I have a map in my head before I go.

[calimac]

I've spent enough time as a passenger in cars with GPS that I would never wish it on B. Its potential to be utterly confusing is far too great. It confuses me and I know what I'm doing.

[cmcmck]

Have a good trip.

Fwiw, I'm not the best at navigation either.

[wild_patience]

Thanks! It's actually String Camp for Adults - 3 days of being with other string players and instructors and playing in orchestra and small ensembles together with work shops. It should be a lot of fun.