Independent of GPS I think people are built differently and can understand 3D (first person) vs 2D (top down) worlds in different ways. I know someone who can

Independent of GPS I think people are built differently and can understand 3D (first person) vs 2D (top down) worlds in different ways. I know someone who can go anywhere once without GPS and recall directions 10 years later even if they never drove near that area again. It's like their memory can recall it the same as the first time they went there. At the same time watching them type on a keyboard is about the same as what it must have been like to witness humans using basic tools for the first time. I've always been bad with driving directions, the idea of navigating in 3D from the first person doesn't mesh with how I think for recalling directions but if I look at a top down 2D map and split things into a grid then it's not too bad. I only just started using GPS the other week but I feel like it has helped me retain information a lot better, I can visualize the route in my mind and trace the turns with street names in a way that I could never do before. Interestingly enough I don't think it's necessarily first person vs top down on its own too. I've played a lot of FPS games in the past with games that never had a top down map and I can still run through them mentally like 15-20 years later. I don't know what it is, it doesn't make sense to be tuned for navigating a virtual world vs physical world but I do think GPS clicks some checkbox in my brain that makes it be perceived as virtualized even though it's mapping the physical world.