[HN Gopher] How to Be Blind
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       How to Be Blind
        
       Author : bcraven
       Score  : 26 points
       Date   : 2023-07-26 10:47 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
        
       | rekabis wrote:
       | > I had to lift the landscape in my mind, rotate it ninety
       | degrees, and set it back down.
       | 
       | Fully sighted, but I have been doing something vaguely similar
       | for decades. As soon as I know an area decently well, or have
       | taken at least one good look at a map, I can visualize the entire
       | region's roads and rotate it in my mind to find the best path
       | (shortest time or least stress) from point A to point B. It's
       | fantastically handy to use in larger cities without having to
       | pull out a map.
       | 
       | And as long as I have prominent landmarks to reference
       | (mountains, etc.), I have a remarkably good sense of direction
       | thanks to that mental model. Provided I have been fully aware of
       | the scenery during my first trip anywhere, I can usually find my
       | way back there from any other direction in which major roads
       | exist. There is a fair bit of "hunting" to find the right road to
       | go down, sure, but I rarely stray significantly from the correct
       | direction.
       | 
       | Downside is that this _is_ 100% reliant on sight to triangulate
       | across geographical landmarks, I'll grant you that. But it's the
       | mental model being used by the author that I'm surprised to see
       | is so apparently similar.
        
       | bcraven wrote:
       | 12ft link:
       | https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fcu...
       | 
       | Andrew's old podcast is highly recommended, later episodes even
       | reference his increasing blindness.
       | https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/the-organist
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-27 23:00 UTC)