Linear thinking

On my recent, very short, trip to Atlanta, I decided to 'borrow' Jon's new GPS device. I've never really used one, except to play with his right before I gave it to him for Christmas. Shhhhhh.

Anyway, I wasn't going to be in Atlanta very long and I thought it might be nice to get where I needed to be with minimal side trips and delays.

Now, mind you, I'm pretty good with 3-D space, directions, etc. I can drive across the country without a map and feel pretty confident in my coordinates, especially if you let me see a map first. Therefore, I figured a GPS device ought to be a delightful addition to the driving experience. GAH!

I turned on the voice prompts so I would not have to look at the device while driving and therefore take my eyes off the road. Such things are, after all, a pet peeve of mine. After in-putting the address of my destination, a pleasant, Star Trekkian, feminine voice proceeded to guide me on my journey. "Drive 3.9 miles then stay right. Drive 0.8 miles then stay right. In 1.2 miles turn left. Turn left."

I have never taken more wrong turns on a trip.

Now, different people process tasks in different ways. Some are very linear and take things step by step, one instruction at a time. Others do not. I do not. I like to know multiple pieces of information at a time so I can choose how to proceed. And my brain just moves faster than that, too. It is frustrating to waste time waiting for the next instruction.

I have worked before for such linear style thinkers. Shoot, I'm married to one. Nothing is more frustrating than having someone explain how, in a single step by single step process how to do something, only to get to the end and find out that wasn't what you/they were trying to do/find/get/achieve. And because they are linear, they don't understand the need to know the goal first and all the steps, so that you can choose the best path to arrive there. (As a tech serve person in a laboratory, I get this from customers a LOT. They THINK they know what they want and don't tell you what you really need to know until it's too late.) Such is the GPS device.

After several wrong turns, I finally realized, "stay right" actually means "don't turn left". It does NOT mean to move to the right. Been to Atlanta? They have many divided highways. That little bit of knowledge made a big difference.

The device itself, when on voice, did not provide enough information on the full path of the trip for me to tell if I was cruising along correctly until it said the dreaded and oft heard, "recalculating". The little screen map was far too zoomed in for a big picture analysis and the text didn't say helpful things like, "Stay on I-75 until Rt. 400." Now that would have been more helpful than, "stay right". I should have just looked at a map before the trip and I would have been fine.

Linear thinkers thumbs up. Everyone else, caveat emptor.