Ditch the GPS | Hacker News Reader

Ditch the GPS

washingtonpost.com

39 pointslelf42 comments

I'm learning how to fly, and tell you what, cognitive overload is real. At first students have a hard time to coupe with stick/pedals, airspeed indicator and looking around for positioning / avoiding other planes. Having a "moving map" that tells you in which airspace you are exactly and where you're going - priceless. Simply because beginner students don't have cognitive capability to comprehend everything at a same time. And as experience grows, cognitive load required decreases, so people have easier time to read paper maps as they progress. That being said, in emergency fewer things to worry - the better. If primary instruments fail (airspeed / attitude / etc), one doesn't have mental capability to deal with instrument failures AND deal with paper maps at a same time.

This is directly transferable to road driving. For example when switching sides of the road: going from France to UK, and suddenly it requires immense cognitive load to adapt to drive on left side (unless previous experience). Or different road standards, for example in Italy highway on-ramps are like 50 meters long (and road switches from 30-50 to 80-120 kph), which most people are unprepared to.

So while yes, GPS might take away some, but it's very nice to have under high cognitive load.

I guess this is obvious, but still gave me a minor epiphany on why experience matters so much. It gives you capacity to handle unforeseen situations by having reduced the cognitive load of all regular operations.

I was recently discussing the difference between experienced (10-20 years) nurses and younger nurses; the new ones do a great job, but they might stress and concentrate a lot to the job right, and don't always have the capacity to handle unforeseen situations with grace or the energy to handle the relatives of the patient too (I was a frequent visitor in a trauma care ward).

Another aspect is that the drivers are actually legally hindered (in many of areas) of an ability to check the paper map as they drive, so it's either you learn and memorize the whole way or stop the car to check; or you can have GPS to provide you with voice guidance or quick glance of which turn to take.

I use the same argument for people learning how to ride motorbikes when they live in London or another urban area: start on a scooter, so you negotiate traffic and learn positioning without worrying about gears and clutch, and are able to make tight turns without fear of dropping a bike.

Once you're confident in traffic, switching to a geared bike is much easier. Learn one big new thing at a time.

OTOH, my father wouldn’t let me get a driver’s license until I could drive the semi-truck mounted (3 axle) water truck with the 5x4 transmission (20 forward gears, 4 reverse, but you don’t use them all), air brakes (but no brakes on the steering axle), no power steering and about 16 gauges (oil temp for engine, both transmissions, both drive axles, air pressure, oil pressure, water temp, pyrometer, turbo boost, tach, speedometer, voltage, etc.)

The splitter box (the 4 speed) had a reversed pattern from the main box (the 5 speed).

Fully-loaded with 3,000 gallons of water, 500 gallons of diesel and 1,000’ of drill pipe it weighed about 55,000 lbs (GVW).

It was complex for a 16 year-old.

Sounds like your dad was a lot of fun! I “cheated” my uncle by telling him I already know how to drive and took his stick shift to the neighboring ground to play on my own :)

My father and grandfather were a ton of fun. They taught me a lot. I miss them both.

I suspect your uncle knew your game, and was giving you the experience he knew you wanted. :)

How about journalists stop telling us what we're doing wrong and what we should start doing/not doing because the journalist had some simple-minded eureka moment? GPS use is not an either/or thing where if you use GPS, you NEVER don't use GPS. These researchers who are finding atrophy in the hipposcampus due to less use need to ask "less use compared to what?" Compared to people who use it more? Congratulations for seeing the obvious. Less use compared to the way the hippocampus grew or atrophied in humans decades and centuries ago when they didn't use GPS and also didn't regularly travel vast distances or study maps to do so?

I couldn't read the article because of the pay wall, but if the argument is "stop using GPS because it weakens some part of your brain", it's the same old argument.

It's frustrating to me to see this rehashed all the time because it amounts to "stop using a useful thing because it degrades your skills when you don't have that thing". Yeah, the reason I don't care about memorizing a hundred phone numbers any more is because I never need to type one in.

And nobody memorized a hundred phone numbers anyway. Beyond a certain point, people had books (little black books, even) with phone numbers written in them.

My point is, whenever people rail against new technology, they tend to forget about old technology and how that was supposed to be the downfall of mankind back when it was new, or at least in the spotlight. For example, before TV, we had novels, and, much like how TV was railed against for destroying your mind, novels were supposed to be dangerous and deleterious:

http://www.merrycoz.org/books/CONFESSN.xhtml

http://www.merrycoz.org/books/DEVOURNG.xhtml

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Most of time, I use GPS not just because I have zero clue how to get to places. (Time to time, I have to do this, but I would actually look up the place on a map to get a general idea of how to get to places.)

What I find useful from GPS is generally unexpected detours, avoiding traffics, and getting lane guidance information (though instructions given by GPS software are not perfect, it gives me general sense of having to do multiple lane changes last minutes with agony...)

I often switch on GPS on mute mode when driving a road I know, but not it's surroundings. Then when a road block appears I do not need to think where to go, which side to take when the road suddenly splits etc.

I needed to use that maybe 3 times in my life but it was great to know that I can make mistakes which will be corrected by the GPS

The argument made for GPS leading to hippocampal atrophy could easily be made for any new technology.

And yet, the evidence of generations of expanding technology, appears to be that it doesn’t affect brain function in any meaningful way.

Instead our brains pocket the technological advance and start to move on to higher order stuff.

I have a hard time believing that GPS is the one thing, specifically, that is going to buck that trend and make us all stupid.

This does seem like more poorly sourced, poorly researched viral techno-gloom.

> move on to higher order stuff.

I was with you until here. I think many people don’t end up doing “higher order” stuff with the extra bit of time they have driving. Maybe once self driving is here, but it’s not.

I drive without GPS on long road trips and the cognitive load required is minimal so it’s not like it’s blocking me from thinking.

Disagree. I love listening to audiobooks and podcasts while driving, and I love being able to just follow the GPS directions on auto pilot, trusting it will do a decent job, and warn be me when the appropriate turn approaches.

When navigating sans GPS I spend much more time rehearsing routes and turns in my head, which means I have to pause or rewind my audiobook.

You should have your full attention on the road, not on your audiobook. I hope that if you ever get into an accident you will be frank about it and tell the other party - assuming they -- and you -- survive - that you were distracted.

I got a bit of a "yikes" at reading the parent comment as well but how is it actually any different from listening to the radio, which has been a thing drivers have done ever since we put radios in automobiles?

Unlike "handsfree phones", listening to a podcast doesn't require interaction and full attention (although it does sound like GP is giving too much of theirs).

An audiobook is an immersive experience, it engages your imagination (if the audiobook is any good at all), listening to the radio (assuming they don't read well written full length books on the radio) is not.

Radio dramas have been extremely popular in many places since forever. So have "books on tape". It's utterly bizarre to make these kinds of accusations.

What's bizarre about it? Driving is a full-time occupation, not a part-time occupation. If you have to do it do it responsibly.

In complex situations listening to audiobooks is a dangerous affair, in simple situations it may improve attention but simple situations can turn complex in a hurry in a moving vehicle.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29223795

Radio shows are almost universally made to be randomly tuned in and out, whereas books are written under the assumption that you never skip a line, pausing and even re-reading as necessary. Audiobooks are sitting in an awkward position between them, carrying over all the assumptions of the printed book into a medium of forced time.

This is very similar to how talking to someone in the car is much less distracting than taking on hands-free: even the worst passenger will take more cues from the traffic situation about when it's ok to talk, when not to expect an immediate reply and so on than someone behind a phone line. Sure, an audiobook is less bad than many other driving distractions, but still a whole different league than radio (and also many podcasts I guess).

I would argue the opposite. Audiobooks/podcasts keep me alert in dull driving situations. And whenever a situation arises that demands my full attention, I (subconsciously) stop paying attention to the audio for ~30s until the situation is fully resolved. I would say it net-increases safety at least on long-distance/commute.

You can tell yourself that but your time to switch away from having your attention on your audiobooks/podcasts (the latter probably less so, they are much more like radio) is going to be longer than if you weren't concentrating on them. Immersive experiences tend to make us see stuff in our heads that isn't really there depending on how good the writer/narrator is at calling on our imagination. So unless the audiobook is really bad it is going to require some non-zero fraction of your attention and imagination engaged and that's about as close to daydreaming as you can get. Not the best state to be in while driving.

GPS is most useful in urban environments (though skyscrapers are a PITA) with lots of one-way streets, restricted junctions etc. Long road trips hardly need a GPS at all, particularly if you're using motorways, as you can go a dozen miles between intersections and you may only change direction every two or three hundred miles.

Instead our brains pocket the technological advance and start to move on to higher order stuff.

I'm not so sure they really do. But I'm also not sure what you mean with 'higher order stuff'. Anyway I see just so many examples of technology not leading to people doing more complicated/smarter/... stuff. I just see people doing what they always do, but in a different way. Some use technology to get creative, others to gain knowledge, others just don't use those capibilities and instead watch hours and hours of TV commercials or subpar sitcoms. Pretty sure without all the tech the creative people would still be creative and the seekers would still seek. Sure there might be slight shifts here and there, there can be more time to spare on different things enabled by technology, but I'm really skeptical there are major changes (though if you have links to research proving otherwise by all means share).

I never use a GPS because I just look on the map, remember where my destination is, and drive to it.

But even before GPS there were a lot of people who could not navigate. For those people it is really great to have a navigation system.

So I feel this article sound like 'sell your car because walking is healthier'.

But I must also agree with the article. When I tried GPS I had no idea where I was. I believe this is because we trust the system so much that we forget our own 'responsibility'.

Unfortunately, good maps are now scarce or unavailable.

The situational awareness of understanding where you are is a big loss compared to following GPS directions. Looking at a map, you may decide to take a detour or follow a more scenic route. Google maps on android makes this very hard to do since they've disabled the route dragging feature.

I also find that the computer generated routes, while much better than they used to be, are often optimized for the wrong things. I can often pick a better route myself.

I have a family member who would be lost without GPS, but they end up doing a lot of unnecessary driving when going out for more than one errand as they have no idea what the best overall route would be or where these things are in relation to one another.

That's why I prefer MAPS.ME (uses OpenStreetMap).

It is a little slow but so is Google Maps nowadays.

But OSM is way better imho. And MAPS.ME can download offline maps for different areas.

Google maps can also download offline maps for different areas: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838

I'm the same way, and often when younger people are in the car with me, they remark that I have a great sense of direction.

I'm pretty convinced that a substantial percentage of drivers under 30 have no idea where anything is. Plus, judging by how people drive and make erratic last moment lane changes/exits, have reduced situational awareness due to being over reliant on gps or being diverted while driving.

The fear of becoming lost is gone, and so goes the brain's tools to navigate.

Aren't you describing this generation's future ? technology is not helping it's obsoleting.

I hate GPS... But that is because I love being lost, particularly in a place like a strange city. There is a kind of joy in not knowing were you will be next and what you might discover.

Something like GPS more or less forces you to decide on a destination. Often times, having a destination means you miss a lot of interesting places. Even if you have a destination it can be better to end up at that destination through an interpretation of your surroundings and what they mean. My father used to call this process "getting the lay of the land". You don't have to just travel past your environment, you can become part of it.

Being lost in a city can be fun. Being lost in a few thousand square miles of "not much", "almost nothing", and "this is supposedly a town but it looks like a grain elevator with outbuildings" is anywhere from boring to actively dangerous, depending on the weather.

In the UK the practical driving tests have actually been changed to incorporate GPSes.

They have changed a section where previously you would have to drive without instructions to a certain location using only road signs/previous knowledge.

Now you have to go to a set location using GPS/SatNav instructions instead (although 1 in 5 tests make you use road signs only)

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-test-changes-4-de...

Learn to navigate by all means possible. Use GPS if you have it, use the stars if you need it. Whenever you get to a new city, find out where things are. Use books if you have them at hand, or whatever.

Humans are nomads. We either know where we are, or we don't. The tools we build to solve this problem only get us where we want to go when we use them.

(Map-reader here. GPS is great. So is a good chart.)

Archive link: http://archive.is/6D3iB

When I'm in a new city, I navigate with a GPS for the first few trips around, then I start progressively getting rid of it:

First, I let the unit plot my route, and I study it for a minute before getting under way, but then I put it face-down on the passenger seat and try to navigate from memory. It's right there if I need a hint, though, still tracking.

Some while after that, I'll let the unit plot my route, but then simply turn it off. If I get lost or turned around, I'll pull into a parking lot and turn it back on, get my bearings again, turn it back off, and try again. This adds a bit of pressure to the recall, and really steps up my brain's navigation abilities.

I've found that these few simple steps, and just maybe a dozen trips, make me learn VERY quickly. I'm no longer a tourist, I feel like "I belong here", and that's a big deal for me. Feeling comfortable in a place is important, and knowing my way around is a huge part of that.

----

Related (and reposted from an old comment of mine):

Some time back, I gave my old TomTom to a not-very-technically adept friend. I figured a little introduction was in order, and at first, I asked her to interact with the unit while I did the driving.

The first thing I did was ignore every instruction. A few minutes of https://xkcd.com/1837/ ensued.

Because I wanted to drive home the point, you won't break the machine by ignoring it. If you don't feel like making that turn, just don't make it. The voice in the box will just recalculate, it won't get annoyed, it has infinite patience and can recalculate for as many maneuvers as you feel like missing.

This is a crucial bit of understanding that I think many drivers lack, as they blindly try to follow impossible or unsafe maneuvers like the computer's word must be obeyed absolutely.

This should be part of driver's-ed.

Knowing that computers are not to be obeyed but used as tools should be part of human ed.

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