I think there are also two types of people when it comes to navigating. One type gives and understands directions along the lines of "go along this street until you pass the Red Lion pub, then turn right. After 50 metres, turn left". Most people seem to be in this category. Then there are those of us who have an internal map, and have no problem with "go north for half a mile, then turn east". I'm the latter - I always have a mental map which is oriented absolutely. No matter where I am, indoors or out, I can pretty much always point north. I have no problem navigating along routes I'm never taken before, because I can visualize where it will come out. But if you give me relative directions, I'll have to make quite an effort to map them onto my mental map before I can make use of them. I've only met a few other people who navigate in absolute terms - most people I've met seem to be relativists.
My mother is a step-by-step navigator. She wants detailed in-order instructions.
I'm a spatial navigator. Give me enough information to locate the destination on my mental map, and a few local details I can use to double-check that I'm in the right place.
My mother will follow the directions step-by-step. I will travel in the general direction of the location of the destination and start checking landmarks and addresses when I'm in the right area of the map.
I cannot navigate at all when engaged in a conversation. I can drive safely, but if you occupy my attention in conversation, my destination will become random. My daughter used to exploit that quirk for laughs when she was a teenager.
Unfortunately, I have sort of the same issue with conversation and logic problems. I tend to perform pretty badly in tech interviews because I can't think about programming problems very well while participating in a conversation.
> Unfortunately, I have sort of the same issue with conversation and logic problems. I tend to perform pretty badly in tech interviews because I can't think about programming problems very well while participating in a conversation.
Same with me. I've been learning to tune people out, and I tell the interviewer that I'll probably tune you out when I need to focus but you can interrupt me if you need to.
> No matter where I am, indoors or out, I can pretty much always point north.
That’s a very specific claim and it’s something that I’ve felt to the point that I’ll test myself when indoors
Another part of the driving is that I’ll often ‘skip’ over the boring middle parts, reach my destination and not remember the series of decisions I made to get there.
I often listen to books or podcasts when driving and when driving over the same area I’ll remember what part of the book I listened to at that particular spot
