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Has anyone here been like me and considerably improved their spatial awareness and navigational skill? How?
Some cities have patterns in the street names you can use to tell what direction you are going. Position of the sun and time of day can tell you your direction.
Navigating a new city at night without checking maps still trips me up sometimes.
Spatial navigation boils down to learning to position and orient yourself relative to your surroundings. I feel like Google Maps' approach of having the map rotate around you is deeply counter-productive: it puts you at the center of the world instead of emphasizing your movement in the fixed world. It can also mislead you because the phone's virtual compass might be completely wrong and pointing you to the wrong direction.
I have had a small compass on my keychain for more than a decade. When I get off the subway or start a trip, my first task is to determine where the North is. If I don't know it already, I'll check my compass. When I plot a course from the subway station to my final destination, I'll use either a paper map or an app (maps.me, or gmaps) in fixed orientation mode, and determine:
- what direction the A->B vector is (East-Southeast for example), so that I can check it regularly with my compass while walking and detect when I veer off course and need to re-check the map
- landmarks (shops, monuments, boulevards) I should pass by during my trip. If I don't see them, I re-check my position
- turn-by-turn directions (third street on the right, then a left at the roundabout...), with regular direction checkpoint (I should be facing South on this street)
Written in long form, this looks like an arduous project, but I usually perform this in a few seconds, before my partner has finished doing the figure-eight compass calibration dance on their phone. Before I had a smartphone, I used to position myself only with street names and landmarks on a paper map, but I do rely a lot on the GPS position now. I just never trust it for orientation, because my whole system relies on me keeping track of it.
I also learned a lot about my city/neighborhoods by walking in them for pleasure. I feel like I know most streets in a 5 mile radius because I spent so much time in them casually walking without the stress of missing a deadline.
Like most things in life, it ultimately comes down to mindful practice in a non-stressful environment.
Train stations are a little different, because often they look the exact same and you have to rely on small things like signs and very slight differences to figure out where you are. They're tricky and I think just require repetition.
Use an analogue map before you leave and write to route out like a list. With landmarks. Then with practice it’ll come.
Totally not saying you have it.
Could it be on the autism spectrum? I do not know.
I have always been very bad at navigating. Remembering a location takes others 1-3 visits, where it takes me 8-12. I have actually counted.
I am extremely bad at navigating to places and even at remembering the directions to previously visited locations.
I do not have ADHD, I can focus for long. I have always been seen as very smart. Good academic results, good pay, good at solving problems, working on the edge of things. Good at math, programming, writing, performing arts, and socialization.
I am saying these because I do not know if I have any deficits. But I always am bad at navigating.
There is one other things I am (very) bad at that other smart people are good at: chess. I have tried loosely, but any non-player 12 yo can beat me after playing chess for three months.
I am good at everything a smart person can be good at. Not at chess. I totally suck. I can learn new things bery quickly. Yet, chess and navigating beat my ass to a pulp.
I might have Asperger's, although never diagnosed. I have high empathy on the parallel.
I personally think these all are somehow related.
[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographical_disorientation
Stop using gps. I found that if I relied on that I forgot how to navigate. Use an analogue map before you leave and write to route out like a list. With landmarks. Then with practice it’ll come.
Happened thereafter several times, my amazing internal compass was obviously totally based on visual cues like on which side the moss grows and other such shit.
I'm old enough to have learned my way around before GPS. I would study maps of the area where I live, and I would explore - walking, biking, and driving every road in my area. These days, I still study maps online and also look at satellite imagery. When I am going somewhere new, I use Google Maps to recommend routes, memorize them, study them and what I will pass by, and then attempt to follow that route from memory. GPS is always there as a backup if you need it, and the little wrong turns and getting lost that happens without it tends to show you even more of your area. Eventually, you just know where everything is, at least everything within a few dozen miles of your home.
Worst case, you can ask someone for directions because everyone else will have a maps app.