When I was a kid, we lived in an area the rebels were known to visit. I didn't spend much time outside our family compound or the school grounds and the area i

When I was a kid, we lived in an area the rebels were known to visit. I didn't spend much time outside our family compound or the school grounds and the area in between was pretty safe. But my mom made sure we had small maps with us at all times and knew how to read them. Areas to avoid like the edge of town were well marked. I've always loved maps. There may be survivorship bias here. Had I hated maps as a child, would I have been less careful where I roamed? Probably not, but I can't say for sure. Later on I discovered The Hobbit, which had maps of middle earth (The Hobbit had maps, right? I'm not thinking of LoTR, am I?) When we returned to the states, we always had USGS sectional maps around the house. I spent some time in scouting, mostly cause I really enjoyed camping and orienteering. I bemoan the loss of orienteering w/ paper maps and dead reckoning angles and whatnot. In the military I would guess I was in at least the top 15% of the class on map reading and spacial reasoning. After 18 years of dealing with maps, it's no surprise. There were SO MANY people who literally could not read a map to save their lives. I have uttered the sentence "No Sir, If you travel town that road you will encounter land mines, as indicated on this map." -- The key here is if you're going to contradict your chain of command, do it respectfully. I think I may use Google Maps differently than most people. I'll look at the map to figure out where I'm going and what the major streets are and then just start driving. Looking at the map application constantly seems to get in the way of forming spacial memories. Though I really only do this in my home town. Turn by turn is quite useful if you're in a place you've never been to and probably won't return to. But it's kind of funny... I took a 15 second gander at my child's college campus map and was able to navigate him to places he's never been to (on his own campus.) I probably should have given him a map and compass when he was a kid. Anyway... big +1 on paper maps and compasses.