Ask HN: How can I improve navigation skills?

> In my experience, if you rely too much on GPS that tells you exactly where you are and where to go you'll have a much tougher time actually retaining that information.

I think that is not surprising and well explainable. Without looking at GPS and immediately know "ah straight and then left" you now need to switch on your brain: Where am I? Which direction (in terms of compass direction) do I need to go, how am I aligned currently, can I infer from some landmark, sun, prior orientation? And you realize your surrounding for the next time ("ah at that red house or that billboard or that strange looking thing I need to go right"). You even learn street names by noticing them more, and next time can remember when you hit that street at another intersection.. all contributing to build up your inner mental map and orientation... if you know an area well you can just walk unknown new paths, because you know where you should come out and hit known territory from another angle again.

Often I am lazy and use GPS, which is also fine and a nice tool to have for foreign environments.. still this memory&learning effect is soo much compromised, so often when getting there a 2nd time I wonder: Have I been really here already? lol, so definitely sharing and seconding that experience!!

Btw, trying to retrace an unknown path you just travelled on some map only afterwards at home is also superhelpful reinforcement learning!

2nd btw what one said: > They use Google Maps' default "map turns around you" mode while I always orient my maps with the North pointing up.

Yes very much... kills any "need to orient" brainwork completely.. if you must maps, keep them north-oriented!! Definitely too.

Taking a land navigation course can do wonders.

This is like when watching movies in a language you are trying to learn. The English subtitle won't help you learn, you only learn to use it as a crutch. You have to use the native subtitle and a dictionary, that way your brain is motivated to learn in order to be able to enjoy the movie.

Brains love crutches.

This is also like learning a new keyboard layout. You have to just start using it however painfully slowly, but it's precisely that inconvenience that motivates your brain to get it before long.

As one of those people who is like a walking GPS (I can take you somewhere if I’ve only been there once, or I can take you to a place if I know where it is, where I am but not what’s in-between, I have a 3d map in my head and can walk a route in my mind or visualise a place and its details) I’d like to offer the following advice...

Maybe you can learn to be good at navigating. I did it by just walking round London as a kid in an age without smartphones and without parents inclined to drive me places. Public transport in my area of London was also poor and I was a teenager with no money. I also grew up navigating for my parents on road trips.

However, from what I understand, spatial memory and spatial reasoning are somewhat innate. It’s perfectly possible that you just have very poor spatial memory and poor spatial reasoning and trying to change that could be fruitless.

Test my theory by looking at something across the room from you. Would you feel OK with trying to go and pick it up without opening your eyes?