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I can do that, it's just having a mental image of the room and building I'm in, as well as the surrounding landscape, sky, and where the sun rises and sets. Eve

I can do that, it's just having a mental image of the room and building I'm in, as well as the surrounding landscape, sky, and where the sun rises and sets. Even if I have to pass through a bunch of twisting corridors, there's just a mental arrow in my head that's always being updated in the background when I turn.

colonCapitalDee 2y ago
Is that something that you learned how to do? Any suggestions for picking up this skill?
- deepsun 2y ago
  Try playing First person shooter games that don't have a map. But as I said in a sibling comment, it's just orientation using memory, not a compass.
- vlovich123 2y ago
  When I was a kid at some point I just realized I could close my eyes and try to visualize my room that I knew really well. And then I'd imagine what it would look like if I looked at it making a 90 degree right turn. Then visualizing what happens if I walked out of the room, then up the stairs, etc. And then trying to make sure that as I'm doing these turns around corners in my house, connecting it with if I'm facing north/east/south/west until it became second nature to know that. And then as I got older I connected it implicitly with other senses of my surroundings (e.g. time of day + location of sun = you know which direction). I'd just sit for like 5-10 minutes at a time every day doing that until I got "bored" by the skill. Not necessarily sure if it's something you can practice as I know there's actual brain structural differences that can determine whether you have this skill and how advanced it is, and I'd imagine it's potentially harder to rewire your brain for this as an adult.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2y ago
  I found "Natural Navigator" by Tristan Gooley to be a fascinating read with a lot of good ways to train your navigation skills without instruments.
deepsun 2y ago
No, that's just orientation, I can do that too. Playing first-person games like Descent improves the orientation. The true compass would be if you could be blinded, walked through some turns, and you could still pick up north, having no idea about how you got into the surroundings.
- boringg 2y ago
  Yeah but you can always pick up based on observational cues. Real test would be spin around in a dark room without any cues can you pick out true north.
  - jagged-chisel 2y ago
    I think you just said the exact same thing.
burnished 2y ago
I think its different - you're keeping track of something, whereas some creatures can evidently just feel the earths magnetic field.

colonCapitalDee 2y ago

Is that something that you learned how to do? Any suggestions for picking up this skill?

deepsun 2y ago
Try playing First person shooter games that don't have a map. But as I said in a sibling comment, it's just orientation using memory, not a compass.
vlovich123 2y ago
When I was a kid at some point I just realized I could close my eyes and try to visualize my room that I knew really well. And then I'd imagine what it would look like if I looked at it making a 90 degree right turn. Then visualizing what happens if I walked out of the room, then up the stairs, etc. And then trying to make sure that as I'm doing these turns around corners in my house, connecting it with if I'm facing north/east/south/west until it became second nature to know that. And then as I got older I connected it implicitly with other senses of my surroundings (e.g. time of day + location of sun = you know which direction). I'd just sit for like 5-10 minutes at a time every day doing that until I got "bored" by the skill. Not necessarily sure if it's something you can practice as I know there's actual brain structural differences that can determine whether you have this skill and how advanced it is, and I'd imagine it's potentially harder to rewire your brain for this as an adult.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2y ago
I found "Natural Navigator" by Tristan Gooley to be a fascinating read with a lot of good ways to train your navigation skills without instruments.

deepsun 2y ago

No, that's just orientation, I can do that too. Playing first-person games like Descent improves the orientation. The true compass would be if you could be blinded, walked through some turns, and you could still pick up north, having no idea about how you got into the surroundings.

boringg 2y ago
Yeah but you can always pick up based on observational cues. Real test would be spin around in a dark room without any cues can you pick out true north.
- jagged-chisel 2y ago
  I think you just said the exact same thing.

burnished 2y ago

I think its different - you're keeping track of something, whereas some creatures can evidently just feel the earths magnetic field.