Can people really be this illogical? (funny but sad story)

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Well, personally I am amazing at nothing.  LOL.....but still and yet to me cardinal directions.....especially when roads run so straight and true...are much easier to use to relay directions...I mean north side of the road is north side of the road regardless of whether you come from north, east, south or west or fly in on a helicopter. 

Oh, and my house sits diagonally on our lot.  I am constantly pointing the wrong way because in my mind I want the dang house to sit straight.

Well, this could be one difference. The topography here is hilly and twisty and veering off this way and that; only the highways come close to running truly directional. (Ha! Except for beltways encircling Baltimore and Washington...it took me the longest time driving before I understood why 695 E will eventually turn into 695 W...) I’m saying, at least in my region, people don’t say, “I’m on the north side of the road.” The only way I really know (now) that my driveway is on the east side is because I know the road out there runs north-south and so I can deduce it from there. I know if I get on that road and go north-bound, I will soon be in Pennsylvania. I know if I get on there and drive south-bound, I will end up in D.C. But all this does not come to me intuitively and I only know these things because I have been driving around here for two decades. 

I’m screwed all over again if we move to a different region, lol! 

[regentrude]

20 minutes ago, Quill said:

The only way I really know (now) that my driveway is on the east side is because I know the road out there runs north-south and so I can deduce it from there. I know if I get on that road and go north-bound, I will soon be in Pennsylvania. I know if I get on there and drive south-bound, I will end up in D.C. But all this does not come to me intuitively and I only know these things because I have been driving around here for two decades. 

I am puzzled by this. I mean, the sun is rising in the East, setting in the West. The North side of the house is the shaded one, the South side gets the most summer sun, the West side gets the evening light, the East side gets the first morning light - how does that not create an instinctive sense of the cardinal directions? 

Edited September 21, 2018 by regentrude

[Guest]

I think @SKL is right about one thing. Fear of being put on the spot mathematically or fear of feeling foolish can cause a person to not really even read comprehensively. When I graduated from high school I was math phobic. I was so afraid of looking dumb, I practically panicked when I had to figure out the simplest math problem. (I vividly remember a time I was with friends at a restaurant and was trying to calcuate my portion plus tip and I could not make the answer appear. I was just sort of mentally frozen. It was not difficult math but the longer it took the more elusive the answer became until my friend just told me what I owed.) 

A few years after high school, I set about to conquer my phobia about math. I read a few books that now seem pretty cheesy to me but they helped me so much at the time. One was called Rapid Math Facts. Learning how to do some of those helped me get over the fear of math humiliation. I also trained myself to remember that I didn’t have to hurry up and instantly know the answer; I was a grown up and could take all the time I needed. Those exercises removed a lot of my fear of math. Years later, teaching my kids Math-U-See, I began to understand major aspects of math I never understood before. Then eventually I went to community college and had a fantastic remedial math professor who caught me up on all the baffling Algebra I had simply never, ever understood. 

The poor part of my education was that the people in charge of it did not consider it important for a girl to know math so not showing great math talent was shrug-worthy. It’s one reason I have been unwilling to shrug about things that my kids struggle with (like writing for one and spelling for another). I will not tell my kids they cannot learn something. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I am puzzled by this. I mean, the sun is rising in the East, setting in the West. The North side of the house is the shaded one, the South side gets the most summer sun, the West side gets the evening light, the East side gets the first morning light - how does that not create an instinctive sense of the cardinal directions? 

I do know where he sun rises in relation to my house, mostly because I can get fantastic sunrise photos from the rear of my house, but all the other things you just said are mostly irrelevant here because I am in the woods. I don’t even see the sunset because it is behind the woods. The patterns of light and shade here are not regular; trees interfere. My house is situated down a long driveway and is not positioned in any way relative to the road. 

Also, it’s clearly something I don’t have an instinct for. I acknowledge this is a defect of mine. 

I have pretty hair, though. So that’s one good thing about me. ?

[EmseB]

20 hours ago, Quill said:

I imagine my dh “sees” all these roads and how they connect in his mind, just as they appear from an arial view; he even knows the positions of all the different rivers relative to the way we go. So he will say inconceivable things like, “...that’s the road that crosses South River...” oh. Well, okay then! (Not really!) 

2

There's actually a really interesting episode of RadioLab about this if you are into podcasts. It's called "Lost and Found" and has several vignettes which are all fascinating, but there is one about a woman who goes to live with a tribe in Australia (I think) and they communicate in directions. As in, their vocabulary is based on directions. And she explains this exact phenomenon happening to her after a period of time of living there.

[Junie]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

Well, this could be one difference. The topography here is hilly and twisty and veering off this way and that; only the highways come close to running truly directional. (Ha! Except for beltways encircling Baltimore and Washington...it took me the longest time driving before I understood why 695 E will eventually turn into 695 W...) I’m saying, at least in my region, people don’t say, “I’m on the north side of the road.” The only way I really know (now) that my driveway is on the east side is because I know the road out there runs north-south and so I can deduce it from there. I know if I get on that road and go north-bound, I will soon be in Pennsylvania. I know if I get on there and drive south-bound, I will end up in D.C. But all this does not come to me intuitively and I only know these things because I have been driving around here for two decades. 

I’m screwed all over again if we move to a different region, lol! 

The main road that leads to our house is labeled as East/West, but it goes all over the place.  If you are travelling at night it is especially noticeable.  First the moon is dead ahead.  Then it's to the left.  Now it's to the right.  It switches drastically back and forth several times.

And I have also never heard someone say that they live on the north side of the road. 

[EmseB]

As far as directions, I've felt like GPS has really hampered my sense of direction because I just don't use it anymore.

It used to be that we'd move somewhere and I'd spend a ton of time looking at maps of the place to figure out how to get around so I'd have a good picture in my mind of where I was if I got lost. Not that I had a stellar sense of direction, but if I got to a major intersection or highway I could at least figure out how to get home/work/etc.

But now I'm lazy and just put stuff in the GPS. It takes me so much longer to figure out the lay of the land and where everything is relative to each other because I don't try to figure it out. And my husband has an innate sense of direction, so he'll say things like, "We were just there last week. You don't remember where it is?" No. No, I do not because I wasn't paying attention to anything but the computer machine telling me when to turn.

[Scarlett]

40 minutes ago, Quill said:

I do know where he sun rises in relation to my house, mostly because I can get fantastic sunrise photos from the rear of my house, but all the other things you just said are mostly irrelevant here because I am in the woods. I don’t even see the sunset because it is behind the woods. The patterns of light and shade here are not regular; trees interfere. My house is situated down a long driveway and is not positioned in any way relative to the road. 

Also, it’s clearly something I don’t have an instinct for. I acknowledge this is a defect of mine. 

I have pretty hair, though. So that’s one good thing about me. ?

Oh oh! I have pretty hair too!  

I was raised in the Ouachita mountains in AR.  My home town was gridded around a railroad track that ran sw/ne.  And yes I just had to look at the map to be sure......and so while I was aware that my town was south of the big city and other broad markers, at any given time I certainly didn't know what side of the street some houses sat on.  So I get that..

[gaillardia]

More than 25 years ago (just to reassure you that people have always been doowhop about math) I asked to have 2/3 of a yard of fabric at a craft store. The clerk looked at me in disbelief and said she could not sell it in thirds, or cut it in thirds. I asked why not, it would only be TWO THIRDS cut in one solid piece. The price is yadda yah, so it would be thus (price). To me it was very simple math. She looked SO confused.

My dad was with me, I turned and looked at him. We were both shocked but amused. Fortunately the supervisor knew how to do math and cut the 2/3 of a yard for me.

[Scarlett]

16 minutes ago, EmseB said:

As far as directions, I've felt like GPS has really hampered my sense of direction because I just don't use it anymore.

It used to be that we'd move somewhere and I'd spend a ton of time looking at maps of the place to figure out how to get around so I'd have a good picture in my mind of where I was if I got lost. Not that I had a stellar sense of direction, but if I got to a major intersection or highway I could at least figure out how to get home/work/etc.

But now I'm lazy and just put stuff in the GPS. It takes me so much longer to figure out the lay of the land and where everything is relative to each other because I don't try to figure it out. And my husband has an innate sense of direction, so he'll say things like, "We were just there last week. You don't remember where it is?" No. No, I do not because I wasn't paying attention to anything but the computer machine telling me when to turn.

Yes, I felt that too.   When I first moved to the big city in AR in 1983 when I was 17 I spent hours driving around the city.  It was a hilly and curvy city but I wanted to understand it....I got on the loop and figured that concept out.  Then we moved to a rural town outside Tulsa 6 years ago...at first if I had to go into Tulsa I had  a Garmin.....then it broke and for a couple of years I had to wing it....that is how I learned the broad scope of the city.  Now I have unlimited data and google maps if I need it.  I have a friend who has lived here her entire life.  She is in her 40s.  I have a MUCH greater understanding of how to get around the city than she does.  I just don't want to be hampered like that.  

[Murphy101]

Digital Dementia is a real thing.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-change/201507/digital-dementia%3famp

[Guest]

It the same as how so many of us don’t know phone numbers anymore. I used to know everyone’s number. Now, I don’t even know my kids’ numbers. Or my mom’s. Or...well, anyone’s really, but mine and dh’s. (And dh’s is the same as mine but for one digit.) 

[school17777]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

I am puzzled by this. I mean, the sun is rising in the East, setting in the West. The North side of the house is the shaded one, the South side gets the most summer sun, the West side gets the evening light, the East side gets the first morning light - how does that not create an instinctive sense of the cardinal directions? 

 

Well,in our neck of the woods we haven’t really seen much of the sun this year!

[Carrie12345]

3 hours ago, regentrude said:

I am puzzled by this. I mean, the sun is rising in the East, setting in the West. The North side of the house is the shaded one, the South side gets the most summer sun, the West side gets the evening light, the East side gets the first morning light - how does that not create an instinctive sense of the cardinal directions? 

Not directed toward me, but I live on a semi-circle street, and my house isn’t situated “straight”. East is kind of to the right side of the back, West to the left side of the front. Our neighborhood is about as non-grid as one can get. My kids can navigate the forest, but get disoriented in our development!

[MaeFlowers]

5 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Yes, I felt that too.   When I first moved to the big city in AR in 1983 when I was 17 I spent hours driving around the city.  It was a hilly and curvy city but I wanted to understand it....I got on the loop and figured that concept out.  Then we moved to a rural town outside Tulsa 6 years ago...at first if I had to go into Tulsa I had  a Garmin.....then it broke and for a couple of years I had to wing it....that is how I learned the broad scope of the city.  Now I have unlimited data and google maps if I need it.  I have a friend who has lived here her entire life.  She is in her 40s.  I have a MUCH greater understanding of how to get around the city than she does.  I just don't want to be hampered like that.  

 

Tulsa is one of the easiest cities to navigate because it is a grid system. I wonder if noone has ever explained to her how it works.

[Wheres Toto]

I can tell approximate South-East from home and can figure out the right from there, but we are definitely not straight to the road.  Left/Right are much more common around here than North/South.  I still use real maps or look at the map on Google when needing to find someplace new.  I hate GPS.  The maps do use North/South/East/West but mostly to say, "Get on Route 80 going West".  We do live close to both North/South and East/West highways so I can get a general direction based on the highways but they don't really run those directions all the time, that's just the overall trend.

I did have a friend that was visiting family in Eastern Pennsylvania and drove West to come home to NJ.  She didn't realize until she saw signs for Ohio, which was hours later.

[MEmama]

I generally have a good sense of direction, but the coastal area in my state leaves me befuddled. I have a feeling even the most smug person would find themselves quite lost on the rural roads of Midcoast Maine, twisting and winding their way down the endless necks and and peninsulas and islands, if they only assumed by instinct that they knew which direction they ran. Sure the Atlantic is to the right if you're facing north, but good luck finding north. Or the open ocean. Lol

Also Tulsa is insane with its street numbering system. How the heck is South X East Avenue the actual name of roads?

[katilac]

On 9/20/2018 at 10:40 PM, happysmileylady said:

 I just feel like Google maps hasn't really helped him, even though he thinks it has.

I just also think that Google maps/Siri/other directional apps are just not as fantastic and a "manual GPS" lol

1

 

I can promise you that GPS has helped me even though it occasionally screws up, because I screwed up directions on my own all the time. Getting frustrated and lost occasionally is a huge improvement ?

If a person is only using GPS for an added bit of convenience, then paper maps win. If a person is using GPS because it keeps them from constantly getting lost, then GPS wins.  

It's not just a question of not being taught how to use a map; I was taught in school and could do it theoretically. In stupid reality, I got lost time and again. I like to blame it on the fact that my locale has a myriad of waterways that interrupt the roads and entirely too many one-way streets, but I really don't think that was it. My sense of direction and navigating skills were just as awful before GPS existed. 

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

 Also Tulsa is insane with its street numbering system. How the heck is South X East Avenue the actual name of roads?

1

 

That would give me a breakdown, lol. 

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

Also Tulsa is insane with its street numbering system. How the heck is South X East Avenue the actual name of roads?

I think it's brilliant and very precise - makes perfect sense to me. I've never been to Tulsa, but looking at the map, looks like they count from center of city to either East or West and number the avenues going outward, and then S or N tells you whether you're on the S or N side of city.  Much easier to figure out where you are and where you're going than calling it "Elm Street" - the directionally challenged should love it.

[maize]

On 9/20/2018 at 7:31 PM, Mergath said:

 

Same here. When people start telling me to turn north on highway 79 or whatever, they might as well be speaking Mandarin. I need people to be like, "Turn left onto the wonky road with the peach house on the corner right after Walmart."

I've seen research that even among rats females tend to rely more on landmarks to navigate while males have more of an inherent sense of direction--like just being able to track which way is North.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, regentrude said:

I think it's brilliant and very precise - makes perfect sense to me. I've never been to Tulsa, but looking at the map, looks like they count from center of city to either East or West and number the avenues going outward, and then S or N tells you whether you're on the S or N side of city.  Much easier to figure out where you are and where you're going than calling it "Elm Street" - the directionally challenged should love it.

I am directionally challenged and I do think that is better. New York City has numbered avenues. I remember on a field trip one year, a couple of teens got extremely lost and we waited for an hour for them to locate the bus, parked on 8th avenue. They were ocassionally communicating by cell phone. I was getting very frustrated - yes, me, the one who knows all about getting lost - because I could NOT understand how they couldnt see they were getting farther away, as the avenue numbers were increasing. How could they check in at 15th avenue, and then later at 18th (or whatever) and not realize they were walking away from us? One of the dads finally told them to STOP walking, hailed a taxi, and went to them. 

 

[RootAnn]

I can get lost in a paper bag.

So,  while I know what side of the road my house is on, I could not tell you what side of the road the church we've attended for over 15 years is on without thinking and then maybe still getting it wrong. There is a curvy highway leading into that town and I always think I know what direction I'm going once I get into the hilly/curvy town, but when the sun shines, it always proves me wrong. Even my always-know-which-way-is-north dh has to reorient with the sun when in that town. And he agrees that it feels wrong to say north is north because it doesn't seem right based on the roads into town and the turns you make. So, I don't feel as stupid.

On a side note, I love people who give exact directions like "after 3.2 miles, there will be a road labelled "512 Road" (just past a green barn with paint peeling off it), turn right (north) onto that road and go 1.7 miles to the second stop sign (there is a sign on your left (West side) that says, "green pine stables" . . . " I need all the help I can get!

Edited September 22, 2018 by RootAnn

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

I can get lost in a paper bag.

So,  while I know what side of the road my house is on, I could not tell you what side of the road the church we've attended for over 15 years is on without thinking and then maybe still getting it wrong. There is a curvy highway leading into that town and I always think I know what direction I'm going once I get into the hilly/curvy town, but when the sun shines, it always proves me wrong. Even my always-know-which-way-is-north dh has to reorient with the sun when in that town. And he agrees that it feels wrong to say north is north because it doesn't seem right based on the roads into town and the turns you make. So, I don't feel as stupid.

On a side note, I love people who give exact directions like "after 3.2 miles, there will be a road labelled "512 Road" (just past a green barn with paint peeling off it), turn right (north) onto that road and go 1.7 miles to the second stop sign (there is a sign on your left (West side) that says, "green pine stables" . . . " I need all the help I can get!

Me too! It is one reason I like the spoken GPS directions. They are very explicit. (Well, it’s true they don’t include things like the peeling paint barn...) Once I have been to a place, though, I will remember it partially through landmarks and partially through road names and numbers. So in the future, I will think something like, “I know the right turn is coming up because it’s soon after I go under that iron foot bridge...” 

I’m so discombobulated when an area gets a major overhaul, like clear a forest and put in a shopping center. It continues to look wrong for a while until I can do some mental photoshopping on my mental maps. 

[cjzimmer1]

I would say I have a pretty good sense of direction because whenever we get lost when traveling (especially in big cities we haven't been in before) I can easily reroute and get us back to where we need to be.  My sense of where we are in relation to something even as we make turns is very good but I have no sense of where we are in relation to cardinal directions.  I mean if I stop and think and calculate sure I can figure them out but if someone asked me if something was on the north side or south side of the street my initial reaction would be I have no clue.  It surprises me that people expect others to know that type of information because it is so foreign to me to think of things in those terms.  I've never actually had a person tell me go north on a road unless they are saying take hwy X north (which is clearly labeled as such).  Google tells me go north on a road and it drives me nuts because I don't know which way that means for me to turn but people always use turn left/right for directions.  

[KidsHappen]

I have a horrible sense of direction. Telling me to take such and such road north that would be no help what-so-ever. However, I can drive from my house in middle TN to my daughter's house in metropolitan Atlanta by landmarks alone. I can't tell you how I did it though.

[Carrie12345]

My oldest is on the spectrum. From a very young age, he was obsessed with directions, and writing his own (completely accurate) maps on the Magnadoodle.  We literally put a preschooler in charge of navigation! But it had to be from the starting point. He can (even today) only do theoretical special awareness.  Drop him off next door and he'd be lucky to find his way home.  Okay, that's somewhat hyperbolic, but the kid cannot physically follow his own directions.  If we're driving and I ask how much farther to X, more times than not, he'll have no clue where we are in relation to our destination.

It's actually hysterical. After the fact!

[DawnM]

On 9/19/2018 at 8:14 PM, Amber in SJ said:

 

2.  Hanging out at the park

Other Mom:  I am supposed have the boys do a standing long jump for scouts tonight, but I didn't bring my measuring tape.

Me:  Well, how accurate do you need to be?  Dollar bills are just over 6" long, I have one of those.

Other Mom:  How will that help?  The measurement has to be in feet.

Me: Well, you could use the dollar bill like a 6" long ruler.......  you know, like two per foot.

Other Mom:  That would never work, I'd need like $6.

Yet Another Mom at the Park:  Well, I have a $5 so if Amber has $1 there's your $6

Me:  What?  Noooooooooo!

 

Amber in SJ

 

Hoping yet another mom only heard part of the conversation and jumped in thinking the mom was short on cash to pay for something.  

[DawnM]

My sense of direction is more like a man's I think.  I HATE when people give me long, drawn out:

"so you go straight there, and if you see the McDonald's, turn left, but if you see the Burger King, you have gone too far.  You should see a stump on your left, about 500 feet, no, maybe 1000 feet, I am not sure, but anyway, when you see the stump, you know you need to turn right after that, you will see a gas station, but I can't remember if it is a Chevron or a Shell....."  and then they just go on and on from there.

Just tell me "Go north on State Street and east on Florida Street, etc...."

Or PLEASE just tell me the address and let me figure it out!

 

[SanDiegoMom]

I think for some people it's the math being verbally transmitted. My oldest dd is good at math - she got a 770 on the math portion of the SAT and a 4 on the AP Calc exam. But yet when she went to get tested for ADHD recently and they gave her an IQ test she gave the wrong answer for what is half of 99 and what is 15 percent of 60. Both questions were asked as a lengthy word problem. If you gave her paper and said find 15 percent of 60 she would be fine - but the act of translating a lengthy word question into a simple math problem was impossible. 

After those she resorted to surreptitiously tracing numbers on the table to visualize the numbers and did better. 

When they gave her the visual spatial puzzles (blocks) to rearrange they said they'd never had anyone complete them as fast as she did. So super smart kid but with something getting lost in translation that makes her appear bad at math to an unfamiliar observer. 

[regentrude]

6 hours ago, DawnM said:

My sense of direction is more like a man's I think.  I HATE when people give me long, drawn out:

"so you go straight there, and if you see the McDonald's, turn left, but if you see the Burger King, you have gone too far.  You should see a stump on your left, about 500 feet, no, maybe 1000 feet, I am not sure, but anyway, when you see the stump, you know you need to turn right after that, you will see a gas station, but I can't remember if it is a Chevron or a Shell....."  and then they just go on and on from there.

Just tell me "Go north on State Street and east on Florida Street, etc...."

Or PLEASE just tell me the address and let me figure it out!

Amen! I prefer precise and concise directions, too: road number, cardinal direction, miles. AND I want the address so I can find my own way in case the directions were incorrect or I made a mistake. 

[Dicentra]

On 9/21/2018 at 11:10 AM, SKL said:

OK so since I admit to having a family member with this issue, I am interested in the why.

I know I first said "some people aren't mathy / you can't make someone mathy."

But on a more specific level, I think it goes back to the fear of word problems.  And honestly, I think the fear of word problems is the biggest reason why they are hard for some.  Or if it isn't, then what is?  I mean my kid can get 100% on a page of equations, then have no idea what to do with a word problem illustrating the simplest version of the concept she just demonstrated 20 times.

What's happening is that she isn't even really reading the problem.  She's making a wild guess as to what numbers go where and what operations apply.  No amount of work on these problems seems to fix the initial problem - the fear.  I can't understand it since I always found word problems easier than the rest of my homework.

I hesitate to say it's poor education.  But I don't know what to call it.  I don't know if there's a fix for it, even in a person who does know a fair amount of basic math.

 

I've often thought that this sort of thing is a result of teaching math algorithmically vs. conceptually.  The first method involves teaching students how to do various calculation types - kind of a "plug and chug" thing - they plug in the numbers and chug out an answer.  Students who are taught that way can blaze through page after page of calculations as long as they all look the same - the "Key to..." series of workbooks is like this.  Unfortunately, if that's all students are taught then when they are faced with applying the knowledge in a word problem, they don't know what to do because they've never been taught the "why" behind the math, only the "how".  I know here in Ontario, there has been a big push over the last number of years to teach math conceptually in the elementary grades as opposed to teaching it algorithmically, as was done in the past.  Sadly, the provincial math scores have gotten worse.  My thoughts on that are lengthy but I think the main reason for the decline is that the elementary teachers themselves were never taught math conceptually, only algorithmically.  Since the teachers don't understand the "why" behind the math, they can't teach it to their students.  From what I've seen, the teachers compensate by turning the conceptual math they are supposed to be teaching into another algorithm - one that's much more complicated than the old-school algorithm most people know.  That's why you get little Billy and Sally's parents complaining about how the "new math" is so much harder and more complicated than it needs to be.  Yeah - if you're going to teach conceptual math as an algorithm, it's going end up being ridiculously convoluted and complicated.

Whew - that was kind of long and a bit off topic. ?  I think about this stuff a lot, though, because students not understanding the "why" of math and not being able to work word problems means that they will struggle when they reach high school chemistry and physics.  And then they'll think they hate chemistry and physics.  And that makes me sad. ?

[DawnM]

43 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

See, I can do this too.  But I never know how the person I am talking to can best process directions.  

 

I can't even think in terms of the crazy directions, and I can't say, "I am not sure how far it is" because I do know how far Speed Street is away from Turner Street.  I can give markers (there will be a Shell station on your left) but I don't ever say, "Not sure if it is a Shell or Chevron."  It is just too confusing.

[Kareni]

I always enjoy directions such as:

"Turn left where the K-Mart used to be ...."

Regards,
Kareni

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I always enjoy directions such as:

"Turn left where the K-Mart used to be ...."

Regards,
Kareni

My mother does that. ?

[DawnM]

3 hours ago, Kareni said:

I always enjoy directions such as:

"Turn left where the K-Mart used to be ...."

Regards,
Kareni

 

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!  I would simply have to stop you and ask for the address and look it up!  ?

[SKL]

The teaching methods argument sounds logical, but IME in any classroom there are kids who get word problems and kids who don't.  It's not that the kids who get them are exposed to better teaching.  Nor does hard work / laziness (on the student's part) explain it.

[Junie]

15 hours ago, Kareni said:

I always enjoy directions such as:

"Turn left where the K-Mart used to be ...."

Regards,
Kareni

Except this would sometimes work for me.  ?

I haven't lived "at home" for 20+ years, but if I were to go home and someone told me to turn where the K-Mart used to be I would totally know what to do.  I may or may not remember the name of the road.

[Scarlett]

I thought of this thread today.  I was meeting my friend for lunch in the small city she grew up in.  She now lives north of that city a few miles.  I was in the city getting my hair cut by her DIL so she knew exactly where I was was.  We were meeting for lunch.  I have been to the restaurant a few times but couldn't remember exactly where it was from the salon...so I asked her, 'do I go south on this main road? '  She said, 'oh I am not good at east, west, north and south'....she said is south toward me?  I said no it is away from you.....and she said, then yes you go south and thne make a right on the corner by the Wal-Greens.'  I was remembering this thread and just cracking up.  

[school17777]

@Scarlett

 

[MaeFlowers]

On 9/22/2018 at 11:00 AM, regentrude said:

I think it's brilliant and very precise - makes perfect sense to me. I've never been to Tulsa, but looking at the map, looks like they count from center of city to either East or West and number the avenues going outward, and then S or N tells you whether you're on the S or N side of city.  Much easier to figure out where you are and where you're going than calling it "Elm Street" - the directionally challenged should love it.

 

This is how it works. The river divides east and west. Admiral street divides north and south. All the major crossroads are 1 mile apart (going both n/s and e/w.) The streets actually started with names moving east but they are in alphabetical order and are still numbered if you look at the street signs.

So, if an address is 3334 E. 27th Pl, you are between 33 and 34 blocks east of the river and 27 blocks south of Admiral. The address can be flipped but the same still applies take the number and the direction that follows.

[LMD]

On 9/21/2018 at 11:24 AM, Quill said:

Ah! My spatially-challenged soul sista! ?

GPS saved me! For realz. Before GPS, I got hopelessly lost on a regular basis. I needed explicit directions going TO every place AND explicit directions on how to return from there. NO! I cannot just reverse them in my head! 

So many needless arguments I had in the car with dh (who is a pilot and a spatial genius) because he wanted me to “just reverse directions” I had printed from MapQuest, like, coming home from Vermont. I cannot do it! I would always make a mistake and he would get mad and I would get more leery of making another mistake and he would get madder at my hesitancy...It was bad. 

Now I just say, “Hey, Siri! Give me directions home!” Voilà! No arguments. Even if there’s some dang road closure or a 9-mile backup, we won’t get lost. ?

This is me. Dh and I have had so many fights in the car! I always take the wrong turn. Always. I pre study the maps, I write out all the steps. I have the GPS going. I still take a wrong turn. I think even the GPS voice mocks me now, deadpan voice: "recalculating route..."

[Murphy101]

On 9/21/2018 at 11:32 PM, MaeFlowers said:

 

Tulsa is one of the easiest cities to navigate because it is a grid system. I wonder if noone has ever explained to her how it works.

 

Right?! I have no idea how anyone can possibly get lost in Tulsa.  I'm so confused how that's possible.

My own son called me last week to say he was lost and my first question was, "Damn, how far out of town are you?!" He was really annoyed by that.  Lol But seriously.  Grid system.  If you either go straight or make several turns in the same direction, you are bound by physics to eventually figure out where you are? Go straight and eventually you'll see a sign saying where you are headed (W/E HWY or S/N HWY) or make some left turns and you'll end up close to where you started.   In son's case, I said what intersection are you at? And he said street number and street name.  Okay, well the streets are A, b, c, then d by 10, 20, 30, 40 so you are at C30 and need to go to D40. So go up a mile, turn south (that. Mean right from where you will be) and go another mile.

His mind was blown that I could do that despite the fact that I have repeatedly drawn our city grid system on paper with major landmarks and made my kids put it in their wallets since they were about 12 years old exactly so they would never get lost and could freely bike or walk wherever.

But apparently since he got a cellphone at 17 he has developed digital dementia and has not memorized any of it because he can just look it up.  Except when his phone dies (he couldn't make the app work and drive at the same time.  ?)  Then it's all thank god for Bluetooth phone connection in his fancy car so he can call mom.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Murphy101

[Murphy101]

6 hours ago, LMD said:

This is me. Dh and I have had so many fights in the car! I always take the wrong turn. Always. I pre study the maps, I write out all the steps. I have the GPS going. I still take a wrong turn. I think even the GPS voice mocks me now, deadpan voice: "recalculating route..."

 

No joke.  I accuse GPS of being a murderous b___.  She's always trying to drive me off a cliff or into a building. I hate her.  Dh thinks she's awesome though bc she never steers him wrong.  Which just makes me jealous and not any more happy with her.

[vonfirmath]

On 9/21/2018 at 5:22 PM, Quill said:

I do know where he sun rises in relation to my house, mostly because I can get fantastic sunrise photos from the rear of my house, but all the other things you just said are mostly irrelevant here because I am in the woods. I don’t even see the sunset because it is behind the woods. The patterns of light and shade here are not regular; trees interfere. My house is situated down a long driveway and is not positioned in any way relative to the road. 

Also, it’s clearly something I don’t have an instinct for. I acknowledge this is a defect of mine. 

I have pretty hair, though. So that’s one good thing about me. ?

 

I don't have an instinct for directions either.

I even have to think to remember which direction the sun rises in.

[Scarlett]

On ‎9‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 7:16 AM, DawnM said:

My sense of direction is more like a man's I think.  I HATE when people give me long, drawn out:

"so you go straight there, and if you see the McDonald's, turn left, but if you see the Burger King, you have gone too far.  You should see a stump on your left, about 500 feet, no, maybe 1000 feet, I am not sure, but anyway, when you see the stump, you know you need to turn right after that, you will see a gas station, but I can't remember if it is a Chevron or a Shell....."  and then they just go on and on from there.

Just tell me "Go north on State Street and east on Florida Street, etc...."

Or PLEASE just tell me the address and let me figure it out!

 

Yes, give me the address and let me figure it out.  Then there is that group of people who don't know the address.  Or even the street they are on.  

[Scarlett]

On ‎9‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 5:35 PM, Quill said:

I am directionally challenged and I do think that is better. New York City has numbered avenues. I remember on a field trip one year, a couple of teens got extremely lost and we waited for an hour for them to locate the bus, parked on 8th avenue. They were ocassionally communicating by cell phone. I was getting very frustrated - yes, me, the one who knows all about getting lost - because I could NOT understand how they couldnt see they were getting farther away, as the avenue numbers were increasing. How could they check in at 15th avenue, and then later at 18th (or whatever) and not realize they were walking away from us? One of the dads finally told them to STOP walking, hailed a taxi, and went to them. 

 

Dh who is not normally directionally challenged had a terrible time 2 years ago on our trip to NYC and CT.  I think it had something to do with landing at night and retrieving our rental car in the pouring rain.  He was confused the entire time and HE was the driver (when we drove).  I remember on our last afternoon there we got off the subway and our phones GPS were telling us to go East.  He was SURE we should turn right.  I said 'Honey, look at that setting sun in the direction you want to go.  That makes it West.'  He irritably insisted we turn to the right even though East was to the left.  We walked toward the setting sun for a block or two before he let us turn around.  It was really crazy how sure he was he was going the correct way in the face of the sun as evidence that we weren't.

[Scarlett]

I sent that cartoon to my friend who didn't know what direction she lives from her DIL's shop....she thought it was hilarious.  And true for her.

[Supertechmom]

I'm from the south, directions mean nothing.  My compass in the car is typically completely out of sync with road signs.  Telling me to go north means..... south for 2 miles, go east for 1, go west, go to light post in Narnia, go to the ice wall and I've yet to actually make a turn or change direction lol!  Maybe the place is north on the map  but there is no way to go north and get there.  Reason why directions are go to the store, turn left, turn to the right, after the church go left, if you see the gas station, turn around....lol!  

[Scarlett]

4 minutes ago, Supertechmom said:

I'm from the south, directions mean nothing.  My compass in the car is typically completely out of sync with road signs.  Telling me to go north means..... south for 2 miles, go east for 1, go west, go to light post in Narnia, go to the ice wall and I've yet to actually make a turn or change direction lol!  Maybe the place is north on the map  but there is no way to go north and get there.  Reason why directions are go to the store, turn left, turn to the right, after the church go left, if you see the gas station, turn around....lol!  

I am from the south too.  But Cardinal directions are the same regardless.  If you are traveling a road that says 101N that doesn't mean it will be running true north.  It just means you heading in the north direction of that highway vs the south direction.  I lived in an AR border town and so we often said 'toward OK.'  LOL

[Tree Frog]

2 hours ago, Scarlett said:

I am from the south too.  But Cardinal directions are the same regardless.  If you are traveling a road that says 101N that doesn't mean it will be running true north.  It just means you heading in the north direction of that highway vs the south direction.  I lived in an AR border town and so we often said 'toward OK.'  LOL

In Texas, I-10 is an east and west interstate. Except when it goes through my city. Then it's more or less a north and south interstate. It took me a long time to figure out if I should take east I-10 or west I-10 when I left downtown.