If I have somewhere to be (eventually) then I also have a profound and deep and deep dislike for being lost. And I also remember those old days very well: The

If I have somewhere to be (eventually) then I also have a profound and deep and deep dislike for being lost. And I also remember those old days very well: The gas station maps, the growing accumulation of paper maps in the glove box, asking directions from strangers ("Oh, you want to go there? Sorry, I've never been up on that part of town"). Trying to pre-plan with carefully-printed online maps, and failing. But I haven't been properly lost since buying a Garmin Nuvi in 2008. My introduction to GPS nav was a profoundly liberating change in my life. It showed me a path from which to get from A to B, which is obviously its main intent. And in more-recent years, smart phone navigation often routes me right around traffic problems. It works well for traveling efficiently. (We all know this. That's the boring part.) But! This kind of tech also enabled me to become lost whenever I felt like it. So, with GPS: If I want to get off of the beaten path, I can do that. I can go spend time wandering in a city and find amazing stuff, and always know that I can get back to any known point with ease. If I elect to make a detour, I just make it. I don't worry about how far off of my route it takes me because that route is always undefined. There's no longer any part of my brain that reminds me that every minute I spent detouring is a minute I need to spend backtracking, because turning around and following the same path back to the highway isn't often the fastest way to conclude the detour anyway and the nav knows this and is keeping track the entire time. It's always plotting a course from wherever I am, to whatever destination I want to reach. And I can elect to follow its directions or not, at my whim. When I get bored of driving on interstate highways in Appalachia, I can push the Avoid Highways button and spend some time on brilliantly-twisty mountain roads in West Virginia while still making progress towards my destination. And when I've had enough of that, I can get back on a highway (maybe the same one as before, but maybe not!) again soon enough. With GPS, I can become "lost" (as in I have no idea where I am, and everything around me is potentially a new place to explore) whenever I choose, without ever experiencing any of the existential dread of having no idea which way to turn that I experienced in my pre-GPS days. It's pretty great.