Famously, cramming The Knowledge into your head induces plastic changes to your hippocampus: https://www.nature.com/news/the-knowledge-enlarges-your-brai...
I wonder if any of the GTA games are large enough to do the same.
The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
> CNC stair builders churned out a demonstrably worse but cheaper version of what my workshop made. That sounds like is is better by the standards the customer cares about. The trick, I think, is realizing when your goals and those of your customer diverge.
The problems with ignoring every signal but price should be obvious. How many people understand whats important in a roof joist when they are having their new home built?
I think a more subtle, and perhaps salient, question is how many people not trying to sell something understand what's important? It's very easy to mistrust the motives of someone trying to do customer education.
You're right. It's obvious that price isn't the only signal. But perhaps it's more readily comprehensible in many cases, especially when other signals are potentially less trustworthy.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#33Famously, cramming The Knowledge into your head induces plastic changes to your hippocampus: https://www.nature.com/news/the-knowledge-enlarges-your-brai...
I wonder if any of the GTA games are large enough to do the same.
trivially almost anything you do introduces changes in the brain; it’s just a question of how robust those changes are and how long they stick around.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#34All this is is an artificial moat to give the taxis a monopoly. I used Uber when I was in London last year, and it was superb.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't take this as a personal attack, but I see this sort of attitude as the crux of the tech "disruption fetish". I'm guilty of the same thing often, but I have to push myself to see past the tech solution and to the human expertise it is replacing. Also this isn't so much a defence of cabbies, I don't use them and think them expensive an antiquated. It's a defence of the process being a better one than the r…
Far from London, in San Francisco I found that yellow cab drivers could often (but not always) take me to where I wanted if I gave a cross street or described an area of the city. Uber and Lyft often couldn't because Google Maps is surprisingly unreliable when it comes to searching for cross streets. Just my house was an example, yellow cabs I could usually tell the cross street and they knew it immediately, and Uber…
Sorry, I think you are making this up because it sounds like you've never actually used Uber before.
> Uber/Lyft I usually had to give the full address and then wait while they typed it in
With Uber and Lyft, YOU have to type in the address in the app before the car even gets summoned. You also get to see the destination so that there is no mistake. So I don't know why on Earth you would think you have to wait for them to type it in. You can't just hail an Uber and tell them where you want to go once you get in. That's simply not how it works.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Far from London, in San Francisco I found that yellow cab drivers could often (but not always) take me to where I wanted if I gave a cross street or described an area of the city. Uber and Lyft often couldn't because Google Maps is surprisingly unreliable when it comes to searching for cross streets. Just my house was an example, yellow cabs I could usually tell the cross street and they knew it immediately, and Uber…
Sorry, I think you are making this up because it sounds like you've never actually used Uber before. > Uber/Lyft I usually had to give the full address and then wait while they typed it in With Uber and Lyft, YOU have to type in the address in the app before the car even gets summoned. You also get to see the destination so that there is no mistake. So I don't know why on Earth you would think you have to wait for th…
That is how it works now. That is not how it worked in the past, and presumably that is what they are referring to. I have many memories of jumping into an Uber Black in SF (before UberX existed) and saying cross-streets. It took a while into the evolution to add the destination picker, let alone make it required.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#37What is amazing with black cabs in London is their ability to find ways other than the normal one to get you where you need to be. This comes with experience from times where Google Maps wasn't so ubiquitous, and that insane Knowledge test. However, everything else I dislike with black cabs. I mostly use Uber and when the main route is problematic, the driver focuses on his phone more than on the road, and that's alr…
Uber Lux drivers tend to be professional drivers working for luxury chauffeur companies and as such are vastly better than the regular Uber drivers, the prices are still competitive with black cabs (for up to 3 pax)
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't matter these days. Google Maps just works, I've driven in London dozens of times with absolutely no issues. There is zero reason to continue to have such a complicated test for taxi drivers when satnavs are so effective, all it does is raise costs for riders and make it harder for people to become drivers.
Please don't take this as a personal attack, but I see this sort of attitude as the crux of the tech "disruption fetish". I'm guilty of the same thing often, but I have to push myself to see past the tech solution and to the human expertise it is replacing. Also this isn't so much a defence of cabbies, I don't use them and think them expensive an antiquated. It's a defence of the process being a better one than the r…
These are little optimizations though. I see asking taxi drivers to pass The Knowledge as the same as asking students to use logarithm tables or memorize digits of PI: yes there is some marginal benefit to doing it, but honestly there are so much more valuable things one can do with their time and energy.
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#39What is amazing with black cabs in London is their ability to find ways other than the normal one to get you where you need to be. This comes with experience from times where Google Maps wasn't so ubiquitous, and that insane Knowledge test. However, everything else I dislike with black cabs. I mostly use Uber and when the main route is problematic, the driver focuses on his phone more than on the road, and that's alr…
Uber Lux drivers tend to be professional drivers working for luxury chauffeur companies and as such are vastly better than the regular Uber drivers, the prices are still competitive with black cabs (for up to 3 pax)
Can I play my music/radio via Bluetooth?
Re: The Knowledge of London for cab drivers
#40What is amazing with black cabs in London is their ability to find ways other than the normal one to get you where you need to be. This comes with experience from times where Google Maps wasn't so ubiquitous, and that insane Knowledge test. However, everything else I dislike with black cabs. I mostly use Uber and when the main route is problematic, the driver focuses on his phone more than on the road, and that's alr…
I was there only one. I called an Uber. The guy went all directions, after like 15 minutes he pressed cancel. Cool, called an other one. It just went into the complete opposite direction, after 5 mins / 1-2 kms watching this I pressed cancel. Called a black cab, guy picks me up alright, then just joined some heavy traffic. I used Waze (that he never ever heard about) and told him which routes to take and did not miss my train to the airport by like 2 minutes.
I am pretty sure every other Uber and black cab driver is much more experienced.