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Did you notice I mentioned celestial angles? That predates the invention of an accurate time piece as a nav technique. My point is that navigation is an analyt

Did you notice I mentioned celestial angles? That predates the invention of an accurate time piece as a nav technique. My point is that navigation is an analytical process. I'd go further and say that it is the ultimate in holding yourself accountable. If anyone here has ever done any kind of nav, you'll know this to he true because you're responsible for the lives of others. Whether you're navigating a Polynesian canoe using celestial angles or using a GPS on a cross country VFR flight. That's why I was startled at the quote from the writer I included above. No navigator would write that because they hold themselves more accountable than that. Curious that my post has been downvoted so heavily. At -4 right now.

mythrwy 8y ago
Downvoting is a spiritual practice and not just a method of selecting a directional arrow?
- mmaunder 8y ago
  Nailed it. LOL!
mmaunder 8y ago
For some of the folks here that are interested in nav, its history, human factors and the development of accurate lat long navigation, the following two books are gems: Longitude by Dava Sobel And Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Gann.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
freehunter 8y ago
Just guessing but perhaps your post is being downvoted because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the word "art", followed by "just plug the numbers into your GPS". "As much an art as a science" does not mean "there is no science and it's all made up", it means the science is so involved that a layman would struggle to understand it and even someone trained in the practice sometimes needs to rely on experience and muscle memory more than a hard rule book. "As much an art as a science" means you can't just be taught how to do it without practical examples. Everything you've mentioned in your experience (holding yourself accountable, analytical processes, etc) is the definition of "as much an art as a science". If it was just science with no art, you wouldn't need to hold yourself accountable. You'd just follow the rule book and be completely assured you'd make it to your destination. "Art" in this sentence means "technical problem solving", from an archaic definition of "art" which means "technics". [1] You seem to have interpreted the word "art" as something lesser than science, then went on to redefine science as meaning exactly the same thing as art in this situation. Maybe think of the phrase as "it's just as much practical knowledge as it is academic". That's how we would phrase the same thing in modern English. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_art
- kkarakk 8y ago
  art as a term always seems to be used in this context as a gatekeeping tool. oh you may know "navigation" but you don't understand the "art" of navigating the sea. yeah, no shit you didn't tell me when those types of clouds are on the horizon it means there is a storm coming. it isn't art,it's just experience/ways of prioritizing knowledge
markdown 8y ago
> Did you notice I mentioned celestial angles? That predates the invention of an accurate time piece as a nav technique. And yet the pedophile Cook leaned heavily on a Polynesian navigator who navigated without such tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupaia_(navigator) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupaia_(navigator)
- markdown 8y ago
  I suppose the downvotes are because you hadn't heard about their pedophilia. Google it. Cook's botanist/scientist on his second voyage, Georg Forster, wrote about how they often took girls as young as 9 and 10. They argued that this was acceptable because "Polynesian girls were sooner ripe".

mythrwy 8y ago

Downvoting is a spiritual practice and not just a method of selecting a directional arrow?

mmaunder 8y ago
Nailed it. LOL!

mmaunder 8y ago

For some of the folks here that are interested in nav, its history, human factors and the development of accurate lat long navigation, the following two books are gems: Longitude by Dava Sobel And Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Gann.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

freehunter 8y ago

Just guessing but perhaps your post is being downvoted because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the word "art", followed by "just plug the numbers into your GPS". "As much an art as a science" does not mean "there is no science and it's all made up", it means the science is so involved that a layman would struggle to understand it and even someone trained in the practice sometimes needs to rely on experience and muscle memory more than a hard rule book. "As much an art as a science" means you can't just be taught how to do it without practical examples. Everything you've mentioned in your experience (holding yourself accountable, analytical processes, etc) is the definition of "as much an art as a science". If it was just science with no art, you wouldn't need to hold yourself accountable. You'd just follow the rule book and be completely assured you'd make it to your destination. "Art" in this sentence means "technical problem solving", from an archaic definition of "art" which means "technics". [1] You seem to have interpreted the word "art" as something lesser than science, then went on to redefine science as meaning exactly the same thing as art in this situation. Maybe think of the phrase as "it's just as much practical knowledge as it is academic". That's how we would phrase the same thing in modern English. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_art

kkarakk 8y ago
art as a term always seems to be used in this context as a gatekeeping tool. oh you may know "navigation" but you don't understand the "art" of navigating the sea. yeah, no shit you didn't tell me when those types of clouds are on the horizon it means there is a storm coming. it isn't art,it's just experience/ways of prioritizing knowledge

markdown 8y ago

> Did you notice I mentioned celestial angles? That predates the invention of an accurate time piece as a nav technique. And yet the pedophile Cook leaned heavily on a Polynesian navigator who navigated without such tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupaia_(navigator) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupaia_(navigator)

markdown 8y ago
I suppose the downvotes are because you hadn't heard about their pedophilia. Google it. Cook's botanist/scientist on his second voyage, Georg Forster, wrote about how they often took girls as young as 9 and 10. They argued that this was acceptable because "Polynesian girls were sooner ripe".