Comments on: It is difficult to understand why this should be such a formidable task

By: Tom Peters

Tom Peters — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 02:31:01 +0000

I believe we need the “incorrect answers” drawn by the females in order to properly investigate. Anyone have the drawings?

By: Bill Jones

Bill Jones — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 13:46:19 +0000

My favorite was in Brazil many years ago.

“You turn left where that policeman got killed last year and then right about a mile before you get to…”

Not a nation renowned for its advances in the Sciences,

By: Steven JBC

Steven JBC — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 06:10:46 +0000

I’ve noticed that few women can use compass directions but instead use “left” and “right” which are relative to where one is facing; and also “up” and “down” but not in any consistent way. I think that in any community with a grid street system, compass directions usually work well; except in those communities where the street grid is skewed 45 degrees from compass directions. That’s the case in both Mississauga and Ottawa, Ontario; the first because of the Lake Ontario shoreline and the second because of the Ottawa River. My own wife has trouble using a map or map function because she keeps forgetting that the orientation of the map she is looking at doesn’t necessarily “line-up” with her surroundings, I have to physically rotate her before she could figure it out.

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 16:30:43 +0000

When my GPS fails me, I start caring about just how the streets connect with each other. And then I figure it out. And I remember it, because I can learn and my GPS can’t.

Thought is a limited resource. It’s stupid to think about things that don’t matter when there are things that do matter to be thinking about. A rational mind is a problem solving machine.

(An irrational mind is a problem creating machine.)

By: TRX

TRX — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 05:35:59 +0000

“I found at times that I could not quickly remember the names or sequence of cross streets in my old neighbourhood, where I lived 16 years.”

I’ve lived in my current house since 1982. I can’t name any cross streets in my neighborhood at all.

I see the signs every time I drive down the street, but I don’t remember them because I don’t *care*.

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 23:59:06 +0000

David Foster,

Good point- one sees male and female writers capture a character of the other sex well enough, often enough, to be convincing. Though there’s often still some element of projection or wishful thinking in it, it can be low enough to sell the character.

Writers seem to do that less well across the boundaries of less commonly encountered cultures, whether for their same sex or the other. The extra layer of sex and cultural difference together can flummox writers who would do better on more familiar ground.

For another species, yeah. Every alien is just a facet of humanity. Even when we do sentient cloud beings or rock men, ignorant of our reproductive practices, concepts of life and death, or of morality, they’re still curious, intellectually and experimentally minded enough to want to test us. So not truly alien after all.

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 23:54:21 +0000

“Others mention that asking directions is almost guarantied to be a waste of time. Well, duh.”

True enough. But if I personally or my sex in general is going to get browbeat regularly for not asking directions, I’m gonna mention its pervasive futility and whip out a map in pre-emptive triumph, just the same.

But yeah, driving around for the sake of it was once a pleasure of mine, and it was a pleasure as a kid when my dad would do that too. A feature of any summer driving trip, never a bug.

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 21:55:41 +0000

The old joke about men not asking for directions?

Because men don’t want to look weak?!? Seriously? Concern about looking weak is a female thing.

Others mention that asking directions is almost guarantied to be a waste of time. Well, duh.

What is rarely mentioned: Getting good directions ruins the fun.

Orienting yourself? Finding alternative paths? Learning the lay of the land? Driving in to an unfamiliar town with only a street address and going straight there by feel? Until GPS units appeared in all our pockets, these activities were one of the few ways a guy can have guy fun in the civilized world.

And, yep, it’s a guy thing. Anyone stunned by very intelligent women choosing two sides of a right triangle over taking the hypotenuse has learned this.

By: Eli

Eli — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 19:13:25 +0000

Graham, this hits the proverbial nail on the head. As familiar as the name of each of the side streets is along my daily commute, I would be hard pressed to list them all, and sequentially.

And I have seen them thousands of times. I have asked strangers (male or female) for directions often enough to satisfy myself that this isn’t a phenomenon specific to me.

By: Albion

Albion — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 17:12:04 +0000

There is an old joke about a country bumpkin, when asked by a lost driver which direction or route they should go to reach a certain place, replies: ‘Well, I wouldn’t start from here.’

In a way, that is a correct answer: essentially you have to be on the right road to have a hope of finding the place.