Another obscure trait question.
It always amazes me that most people find their way around so easily. Most people seem to be able to drive to a location that they have only been to once - in a taxi or someone else's car for example. Most people seem to be able to find a location based on some vague verbal instructions.
I have absolutely no sense of direction, and I can never remember how to find somewhere if it involves more than a couple of turns. Normally the first few times I have to drive to a place I either need someone in the car giving me directions or I need to pull over repeatedly to look at a map.
Fortunately I am very good at reading maps. Without a map I would be lost - literally and repeatedly.
When I first moved into a house in Thailand I had to get a friend of mine at work, who lived nearby, to draw me a map so that I could find my own house and give the taxi directions. When we moved back to Jakarta I had to ask my wife how to walk to the shopping centre up the road, even though we had been there many times and I can literally see it out my apartment window.
These days I am a lot better than I used to be, but I think that that is only because I have taught myself to deliberately commit each turn to my long-term memory, to deliberately and consciously take note of landmarks and how they relate to the route.
Anyone else notice this? Does it sound like a short-term memory issue (Aspies very often have problems with short-term memory), or is it a separate (and annoying) trait?
It always amazes me that most people find their way around so easily. Most people seem to be able to drive to a location that they have only been to once - in a taxi or someone else's car for example. Most people seem to be able to find a location based on some vague verbal instructions.
I have absolutely no sense of direction, and I can never remember how to find somewhere if it involves more than a couple of turns. Normally the first few times I have to drive to a place I either need someone in the car giving me directions or I need to pull over repeatedly to look at a map.
Fortunately I am very good at reading maps. Without a map I would be lost - literally and repeatedly.
When I first moved into a house in Thailand I had to get a friend of mine at work, who lived nearby, to draw me a map so that I could find my own house and give the taxi directions. When we moved back to Jakarta I had to ask my wife how to walk to the shopping centre up the road, even though we had been there many times and I can literally see it out my apartment window.
These days I am a lot better than I used to be, but I think that that is only because I have taught myself to deliberately commit each turn to my long-term memory, to deliberately and consciously take note of landmarks and how they relate to the route.
Anyone else notice this? Does it sound like a short-term memory issue (Aspies very often have problems with short-term memory), or is it a separate (and annoying) trait?
