Comment by dmytroi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dmytroi | Hacker News Reader

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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).

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 :)

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

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

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.

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