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The headline seems like the most obvious thing in the world to me. I'm glad it's proved by science, but I have never been able to find my way home without Goog

The headline seems like the most obvious thing in the world to me. I'm glad it's proved by science, but I have never been able to find my way home without Google, if Google told me how to get here, or if my friend in the passenger seat did the navigating. As a parent, if I only do things for my kids instead of watching them do it themselves, then I will always be the one doing.

stanmancan 6y ago
Totally. Just recently I started showing my kid how to get somewhere they goes often. I lead the way the first 5 times and the 6th made them lead. They had no clue where to go, so instead I made them guess and if they were wrong I would correct them. 7th day they took me on their own without any assistance. I only did this because of what you said; anytime I rely on Google Maps to get me somewhere, I never really know where to go until I find my own way there. I think it’s similar to how teaching something makes you understand it better.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  You can get the same effect much less painfully by having your kid go there themselves, without you. When I was learning to drive, my dad was remarkably disturbed that, despite never having had to go anywhere myself, I didn't know how to go anywhere. So he made me try to find my way home while he sat in the passenger seat watching. In a totally predictable development, I ran a red light under stress and got a ticket, months before even getting a driver's license.
reificator 6y ago
> I have never been able to find my way home without Google, if Google told me how to get here, or if my friend in the passenger seat did the navigating. Are you able to say "I came from the west, I'm going to go west until I find a road I'm familiar with, and then follow that to an area I'm familiar with, and then get home from there"? I can understand not being able to find a place you've been before if you weren't navigating the first time, but to find it difficult to get back home seems very alien to me. But then I don't use a GPS very often.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  What if you go west and the road bends north and you don't see a familiar road? At some point you may go too far west and then going west makes your situation worse.
  - reificator 6y ago
    No I'm not saying to blindly go where no man has gone before. Just... just give it a try. I think you'll surprise yourself. Besides, having a GPS in your pocket at all times makes it safer to get lost than it was in the Rand McNally days.
    - trey-jones 6y ago
      For your original question, I guess it's a little bit hyperbolic to say that I can't find my way home. I like to think that my sense of direction is fine. It would be more accurate to say that I can't find my way to an unfamiliar place a second time, if I didn't manage my own navigation the first time.
      - reificator 6y ago
        Yeah, that I totally get. I just wasn't sure if you were being literal about the other part, which would seem really weird to me.
    - pessimizer 6y ago
      I don't understand your point. I never use a GPS to navigate, and I've gotten plenty lost. Six months ago, while aimlessly exploring westward on my motorcycle to get some air at the beginning of quarantine I went down a road I was familiar with a different segment of. I did not realize the road went through some strange twists (with no exit) where I got on it this time, and by the time I was able to get off of it, I was completely disoriented. My attempts to correct got me even more disoriented, to the point where I was relying on the sun so I would at least know the cardinal direction I was heading in. My original thinking that getting my bearings would be trivial caused me to make quick decisions that left me so confused that I couldn't even retrace my route back to the road that originally discombobulated me. I didn't want to ask for directions because I was afraid of the virus. I ended up pulling into a hardware store's parking lot, and calling my mother who lives in a different state asking her to google map the hardware store by name so she could point me back in the direction of the city where I live. I had managed to get over an hour away from my house, meaning that almost every decision I made was wrong. I can't say it wasn't a nice ride, though. But my point is that people are not homing pigeons. I'm very good at navigating generally, but a couple of bad decisions can compound. That's how people get lost in the woods. If your commute is complicated, the way you actually end up memorizing it is by screwing it up a bunch of times.
Loughla 6y ago
> if I only do things for my kids instead of watching them do it themselves, then I will always be the one doing. Honestly, if I had a dollar for every time a student (this is a college) who was unable to function in a classroom or public space, because their parents either bulldozed every obstacle, or (and this happens more than you'd think) did their actual homework for them starting at an early age, I'd have like $200. I know it doesn't sound like a lot. But, there are a number of parents who prescribe to the parenting tradition of - the child should never meet an obstacle, for fear of their self-esteem. This includes homework, negative feedback, or any extra-curricular the child is not immediately amazing at. By the time these kids get to me, they are literally unable to function as adults in a public space.
- ekanes 6y ago
  > the child should never meet an obstacle, for fear of their self-esteem Right, and this does exactly the opposite! Self-esteem is built ONLY by meeting obstacles and overcoming them.

stanmancan 6y ago

Totally. Just recently I started showing my kid how to get somewhere they goes often. I lead the way the first 5 times and the 6th made them lead. They had no clue where to go, so instead I made them guess and if they were wrong I would correct them. 7th day they took me on their own without any assistance. I only did this because of what you said; anytime I rely on Google Maps to get me somewhere, I never really know where to go until I find my own way there. I think it’s similar to how teaching something makes you understand it better.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
You can get the same effect much less painfully by having your kid go there themselves, without you. When I was learning to drive, my dad was remarkably disturbed that, despite never having had to go anywhere myself, I didn't know how to go anywhere. So he made me try to find my way home while he sat in the passenger seat watching. In a totally predictable development, I ran a red light under stress and got a ticket, months before even getting a driver's license.

reificator 6y ago

> I have never been able to find my way home without Google, if Google told me how to get here, or if my friend in the passenger seat did the navigating. Are you able to say "I came from the west, I'm going to go west until I find a road I'm familiar with, and then follow that to an area I'm familiar with, and then get home from there"? I can understand not being able to find a place you've been before if you weren't navigating the first time, but to find it difficult to get back home seems very alien to me. But then I don't use a GPS very often.

srtjstjsj 6y ago
What if you go west and the road bends north and you don't see a familiar road? At some point you may go too far west and then going west makes your situation worse.
- reificator 6y ago
  No I'm not saying to blindly go where no man has gone before. Just... just give it a try. I think you'll surprise yourself. Besides, having a GPS in your pocket at all times makes it safer to get lost than it was in the Rand McNally days.
  - trey-jones 6y ago
    For your original question, I guess it's a little bit hyperbolic to say that I can't find my way home. I like to think that my sense of direction is fine. It would be more accurate to say that I can't find my way to an unfamiliar place a second time, if I didn't manage my own navigation the first time.
    - reificator 6y ago
      Yeah, that I totally get. I just wasn't sure if you were being literal about the other part, which would seem really weird to me.
  - pessimizer 6y ago
    I don't understand your point. I never use a GPS to navigate, and I've gotten plenty lost. Six months ago, while aimlessly exploring westward on my motorcycle to get some air at the beginning of quarantine I went down a road I was familiar with a different segment of. I did not realize the road went through some strange twists (with no exit) where I got on it this time, and by the time I was able to get off of it, I was completely disoriented. My attempts to correct got me even more disoriented, to the point where I was relying on the sun so I would at least know the cardinal direction I was heading in. My original thinking that getting my bearings would be trivial caused me to make quick decisions that left me so confused that I couldn't even retrace my route back to the road that originally discombobulated me. I didn't want to ask for directions because I was afraid of the virus. I ended up pulling into a hardware store's parking lot, and calling my mother who lives in a different state asking her to google map the hardware store by name so she could point me back in the direction of the city where I live. I had managed to get over an hour away from my house, meaning that almost every decision I made was wrong. I can't say it wasn't a nice ride, though. But my point is that people are not homing pigeons. I'm very good at navigating generally, but a couple of bad decisions can compound. That's how people get lost in the woods. If your commute is complicated, the way you actually end up memorizing it is by screwing it up a bunch of times.

Loughla 6y ago

> if I only do things for my kids instead of watching them do it themselves, then I will always be the one doing. Honestly, if I had a dollar for every time a student (this is a college) who was unable to function in a classroom or public space, because their parents either bulldozed every obstacle, or (and this happens more than you'd think) did their actual homework for them starting at an early age, I'd have like $200. I know it doesn't sound like a lot. But, there are a number of parents who prescribe to the parenting tradition of - the child should never meet an obstacle, for fear of their self-esteem. This includes homework, negative feedback, or any extra-curricular the child is not immediately amazing at. By the time these kids get to me, they are literally unable to function as adults in a public space.

ekanes 6y ago
> the child should never meet an obstacle, for fear of their self-esteem Right, and this does exactly the opposite! Self-esteem is built ONLY by meeting obstacles and overcoming them.