4 ms·

"being able to walk around a city and not get lost" I have this module. You can fly me to a new country and drop me in a city I've never seen before, and I'll

"being able to walk around a city and not get lost" I have this module. You can fly me to a new country and drop me in a city I've never seen before, and I'll start navigating it on foot in a day. It worked for me in Copenhagen, Rome, and Barcelona (and miserably failed in Tallinn at night). I always thought that it was my innate ability to navigate three-dimensional spaces, but now I begin to suspect that this is a trained "module". I walk a lot (mostly in cities), and I played first-person shooters since the first DOOM back in 1993. And I recently found out that I strongly prefer first-person games to top-down / 2D games -- I instantly feel "at home" there. So I guess my advice to someone who wants to train this "navigation module" would be to 1) walk on foot in complex spaces like cities, and 2) play first-person games without objective and map markers where the knowledge of the game space is critically important. Modern survival games, such as Green Hell, Subnautica, and The Long Dark, are a perfect fit.

croisillon 5y ago
I've been going by foot, metro and bike for over 10 years in the European 2 million city where I live, and I still get lamentably lost when trying to connect two points I should know for the first time.
quirino 5y ago
VSauce has a Mind Field episode on the phenomenon you described - 3D, first person games improving spatial memory and navigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM.
ggm 5y ago
I thought I had this. My SO laughed fit to bust when I said so. Maybe it vanished like my hair. More likely is a strong visual intuitive sense of place which can't translate well to street names and left/right statements
ajuc 5y ago
> You can fly me to a new country and drop me in a city I've never seen before, and I'll start navigating it on foot This doesn't work in triangle-based cities like Szczecin :) It's very hard to stop the assumption that 2 right turns is roughly 180 degrees :)
- VladimirGolovin 5y ago
  And in neighborhoods planned as concentric circles. My navigation module goes completely bonkers.
- lioeters 5y ago
  It probably doesn't work in cities like Prague either, parts of which were specifically designed like a labyrinth (not a grid at all) to confuse invaders.
Brajeshwar 5y ago
This is nice. I'm kinda opposite. I tend to be able to zoom-out in my mind, where I'm and look at my bearing from a bird's eye view like a map (positioning myself on a map such as Google Maps). I like playing strategy games more than first-person shooters. I did played a lot and started with FPS but stopped after being rushed to the hospital after I collapsed playing a game way back in the early days. :-)
- danuker 5y ago
  > after I collapsed playing a game way back in the early days Ouch. What was the collapse caused by? Was it related to the game?
  - Brajeshwar 5y ago
    I think exhaustion and dis-orientation. I remember being told to eat more, and stay out in the sun.
fjfaase 5y ago
I have the feeling that I have had this all my life. Maybe it is because as I child I was allowed to wander around on myself by foot and by bike. I remember that when I was still in primary school, I often made biking trips going as far as 6 miles from our home. When I am in a strange area, I always have some sense of the direction from which I came.
ryanmercer 5y ago
>I always thought that it was my innate ability to navigate three-dimensional spaces, but now I begin to suspect that this is a trained "module". I walk a lot (mostly in cities), and I played first-person shooters since the first DOOM back in 1993. And I recently found out that I strongly prefer first-person games to top-down / 2D games -- I instantly feel "at home" there. For me it was MUDs, exploring and running to known locations in MUDs almost certainly developed that feature in me as I was playing then in 1994 when I was all of 9 years old and my sole means of transportation was my bicycle in the real world.
Zababa 5y ago
For me it's the opposite, when walking around I'll have a sense where "north" or "home" is, and at some point it will switch (north becoming east for example) and I won't notice it.

croisillon 5y ago

I've been going by foot, metro and bike for over 10 years in the European 2 million city where I live, and I still get lamentably lost when trying to connect two points I should know for the first time.

quirino 5y ago

VSauce has a Mind Field episode on the phenomenon you described - 3D, first person games improving spatial memory and navigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM.

ggm 5y ago

I thought I had this. My SO laughed fit to bust when I said so. Maybe it vanished like my hair. More likely is a strong visual intuitive sense of place which can't translate well to street names and left/right statements

ajuc 5y ago

> You can fly me to a new country and drop me in a city I've never seen before, and I'll start navigating it on foot This doesn't work in triangle-based cities like Szczecin :) It's very hard to stop the assumption that 2 right turns is roughly 180 degrees :)

VladimirGolovin 5y ago
And in neighborhoods planned as concentric circles. My navigation module goes completely bonkers.
lioeters 5y ago
It probably doesn't work in cities like Prague either, parts of which were specifically designed like a labyrinth (not a grid at all) to confuse invaders.

Brajeshwar 5y ago

This is nice. I'm kinda opposite. I tend to be able to zoom-out in my mind, where I'm and look at my bearing from a bird's eye view like a map (positioning myself on a map such as Google Maps). I like playing strategy games more than first-person shooters. I did played a lot and started with FPS but stopped after being rushed to the hospital after I collapsed playing a game way back in the early days. :-)

danuker 5y ago
> after I collapsed playing a game way back in the early days Ouch. What was the collapse caused by? Was it related to the game?
- Brajeshwar 5y ago
  I think exhaustion and dis-orientation. I remember being told to eat more, and stay out in the sun.

fjfaase 5y ago

I have the feeling that I have had this all my life. Maybe it is because as I child I was allowed to wander around on myself by foot and by bike. I remember that when I was still in primary school, I often made biking trips going as far as 6 miles from our home. When I am in a strange area, I always have some sense of the direction from which I came.

ryanmercer 5y ago

>I always thought that it was my innate ability to navigate three-dimensional spaces, but now I begin to suspect that this is a trained "module". I walk a lot (mostly in cities), and I played first-person shooters since the first DOOM back in 1993. And I recently found out that I strongly prefer first-person games to top-down / 2D games -- I instantly feel "at home" there. For me it was MUDs, exploring and running to known locations in MUDs almost certainly developed that feature in me as I was playing then in 1994 when I was all of 9 years old and my sole means of transportation was my bicycle in the real world.

Zababa 5y ago

For me it's the opposite, when walking around I'll have a sense where "north" or "home" is, and at some point it will switch (north becoming east for example) and I won't notice it.