Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:19:45 -0700
Reply-To: Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject: Re: Maps vs GPS
In-Reply-To: <4AD0CE2D.7000100@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Different wiring produces different results. I've read several times that
women navigate more by land marks rather than by directions, number of turns
etc. which is more in the way that men do it. If she can see the Lane Bryant
and the 7-11, she'll have confidence she's in the right area, at least.
A friend of mine from high school became her class valedictorian and went on
to be one of the first women in the world to get a PhD in her field. She
basically made it through Geometry and Physics because of my help (we worked
in groups); she couldn't think in 3-D or deal with vectors and so on at all.
On the other hand, I made it through (physics, anyway) because I foolishly
got into it without the required advanced math, which she did have. She
wound up with the better grades too, of course.
I think maps are a developed or taught skill for most people. I've seen as
many men as women get completely flummoxed by a map. Despite their (former)
ubiquity, many people just don't know how they work, and god forbid they'd
read the instructions, since they're usually lost/in a hurry and therefore
under pressure to boot.
Then there's the aforementioned ability to reverse left/right and top/bottom
in your mind when you're driving south and so on- I don't know how well one
can learn that.
A lot of the popularity of GPS is in the same forces that drive the
popularity of Toyotas and diet pills; most people have neither the interest
nor the time for bootstrapping a problem the hard way. That's not
necessarily a bad thing in of itself, considering how often those same
people have trouble even with the easy way. On the other hand, it once took
me 7 hours to make the 2.5 hour trip home from L.A. (with three kids in the
car) because of an overturned tanker on the 405. I would've given a
port-side accessory for a GPS that afternoon, and I wasn't even close to
lost, just ignorant of the alternative routes. I had to stop at a HellMart
and sneak a look at a Thomas Guide. : /
Cya,
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Rocket J Squirrel
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 11:11 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Maps vs GPS
Hi Jim,
Interpreting route directions, like the sample provided, is not difficult
for Mrs Squirrel, although the directions she gets from her women friends
often contain extraneous detail like, "Turn right on 3rd street and after
a while you'll pass a gas station on the left, then a big red house after
that. You'll come to an intersection with stoplights, go straight through
that, then turn left at Concord, which has a Lane Bryant and a 7-11."
"Why not just say `Go north on 3rd for 2 miles, then left on Concord'," I
ask.
"We like to make sure we're going the right way," is her response.
So despite different styles, Mrs Squirrel can follow route information
fine. Reading a map, however, does cause her considerable confusion.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 10/9/2009 5:59 PM Jim Arnott wrote:
> I use GPS to get me from this house to that address. I use dead tree
> maps when I need to get from here to about there. Miss Lisa is a fine
> map reader/navigator. Though she and I differ on how to fold a map.
>
> Mr Squirrel, you need to spend a bit more time teaching your primary
> navigator how to interpret route instructions. Maybe see if there is a
> rally club in Bend. A couple TSD rallies under her belt and you'd never
> complain again. Nor have reason to. (of course, your marriage might well
> not survive....)
>
> Jim
>
> Sample:
>
> 0.00 1. Right out of parking
> 0.32 2. Left at stop.
> 8.91 10. Right at T.
> 9.42 11. Right after "Stop"
> 10.07 12. End odometer check at "35". CAST 37
> 13. Right onto Palm Ave.
> 14. Right after "State Rd 7". CAST 44
> 15. Right after State Rd 7.
> 16. "NW 5th". CAST 32.
> 17. Right onto unpaved.
> 18. Right on 2nd paved road.
> 19. Pause 30 seconds at TCL.
> 21.30 20. Left.
> 21. Pause 1.00 min. at stop.
> 22. Left.
> 23. etc.
>
>
<http://www.tropicalsportscarclub.com/standard.htm#E.%20ROUTE%20INSTRUCTIONS
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 9, 2009, at 3:46 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>
>> Yeah -- what's up with that? Not to paint with too broad a brush, but can
>> women within one standard deviation of the median read a map? None of my
>> three wives has ever known how to read a map.
>
>
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