Mariners use "port" and "starboard" for vehicle relative directions not because it's "cool" but because it's clear and unambiguous. Problem decomposition works the same way: some problems decompose better with FP (I would argue databases do) some with OOP, some with EF etc. The more you know the clearer code you can write and the faster you can extract the theory from other people's code.
“You want me to turn right, right?”
After that Port/Starboard would make sense and I'd be chucking someone over one of them.
b) With the possible exception of "forward", if you hear one of these words you always know it's specifying a direction relative to the direction the boat is pointing, which is not true for "left" and "right".
Lots of other jargon too for other directions or places (leeward, windward, amidships, athwartships, etc) but that is all much less common than the four listed above.
Also, there's a fun additional distinction for forward and aft, which is that they tend to refer to locations within the vessel. Ahead and astern are used to refer to locations outside of the vessel.
After about 8 years of sailing fairly regularly with various crews, I still get many of the terms mixed up. For instance, stanchions and shrowds are terms that are useful, but they never seen to come to mind when I need to communicate them.
For instance if you're facing port and I ask you to take two steps forward, you could either take two steps to port or two steps towards the bow. If I tell you to take two steps to port then the direction is unambiguous.
At the intersection of Main and Oak, go two blocks east. The building will be on the north side of the street.
Those instructions are the same no matter what direction the person is facing or direction they came from.
However, on a ship, the absolute positions of NSEW (relative to the Earth) aren't as useful as the ship may be heading any direction (and may be going forward or reverse). So a different absolute coordinate system is use - fore, aft, port, starboard.
So "move forward" doesn't say much, whereas "toward the bow" e.g. does.
Same for left/right compared to port/startboard.
"Stage left" as if I'm standing looking towards the stage from the audience, or looking from the stage towards the audience?
I left the cheese on the left side