Read concurrently with Maphead.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10502301-maphead
Overlap was a fun way to read about topic.

If I had read just the first third (or maybe even half) of this book it would have gotten a much higher rating, but there was entirely too much of the same thing over and over and I’m so over it.

"Wisdom sits in places. It’s like water that never dries up. You need to drink water to stay alive, don’t you? Well, you also need to drink from places. You must remember everything about them."

☸️ From WAYFINDING: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World by M.R. O'Connor, 2019.

#ScienceSeptember

One of those books that changes the way you think about the world and our relationship to it. Really amazing mix of empirical and experientiental reporting. Fantastically written and observed.

4.5, really, because I had no hesitation reading this through to the end and relating to it the entire way, and that can't be said of all nonfiction. I feel motivated to go take a walk now and see if I can learn my world a little differently.

I thought this was a very interesting book. Wayfinding is considered the ability to navigate your way without use of technologies. The book starts off with an interesting discussion of the brain regions involved with these processes and unpacks the experiences of the author as she learns about the wayfinding skills that peoples in the Arctic, Australia and Oceania employ in finding their way through what appears to us to be nothing but unremarkable land- and sea-scapes. I was fascinated by the idea that we have an absolute and relative way to consider space and that this consideration of space may have to do with the way we construct narratives that guide us through the spatial world, but also more abstract worlds of myth and storytelling. The final chapters of the book look at how using less technology could allow us to flex our navigating skills without reliance on GPSs and technologies by noticing more of the hints around us everyday. However, there was a sense that this might be useful in the parts of the world which are not built up with roads and other people around every corner - not so much in cities or suburbia. Overall, an enjoyable read.