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> I had to lift the landscape in my mind, rotate it ninety degrees, and set it back down. Fully sighted, but I have been doing something vaguely similar for de
by rekabis 3y ago
> I had to lift the landscape in my mind, rotate it ninety degrees, and set it back down.
Fully sighted, but I have been doing something vaguely similar for decades. As soon as I know an area decently well, or have taken at least one good look at a map, I can visualize the entire region’s roads and rotate it in my mind to find the best path (shortest time or least stress) from point A to point B. It’s fantastically handy to use in larger cities without having to pull out a map.
And as long as I have prominent landmarks to reference (mountains, etc.), I have a remarkably good sense of direction thanks to that mental model. Provided I have been fully aware of the scenery during my first trip anywhere, I can usually find my way back there from any other direction in which major roads exist. There is a fair bit of “hunting” to find the right road to go down, sure, but I rarely stray significantly from the correct direction.
Downside is that this is 100% reliant on sight to triangulate across geographical landmarks, I’ll grant you that. But it’s the mental model being used by the author that I’m surprised to see is so apparently similar.
- JohnFen 3y agoI developed this ability through backpacking and navigating with topological maps. You're frequently reading the map oriented so that it matches your desired heading, rather than always reading it with north pointing up, so you're changing that orientation as you travel. At some point, I found that I was doing that with my "mental map" of reality as well. It's very handy indeed.
- cryptica 3y agoI'm usually very good with visualization and spacial reasoning but these days I've become so reliant on mobile phone map software that I barely pay attention to my surroundings and I can never remember how to navigate around an area. My mind's garbage collector is highly optimized and my focus is so narrow sometimes that I don't notice things that happen right in front of me. Though when I do notice something, I remember it vividly for a long time. This article is a testament to the importance of focus and awareness. It seems like being blind forces you to be in the present and pay attention to every small signal that you can get from your environment.
- askonomm 3y agoI have the same exact thing and am only recently realising that it's not very common. So far I've always been amazed when people do not have a similar way of navigating, or any good sense of direction at all, but for me it usually just takes one scan of a place I'm good to go. Whether that is me looking at a map once, or landing in a new city and walking one path, that is enough to already build a pretty good model in my head.
- xcskier56 3y agoI have to do this every time I go to Salt Lake City. I’ve been to Denver a lot and I’m so used to the mountains being to the west, but in SLC they’re east of the city. I am always 180 degrees off until I really think and re-orient. It’s exactly as he described… take my mental map and rotate