Something I ought to learn more about is how blind people navigate a city.  Do they develop impressive spatial intelligence?  Is it strictly a matter of obtaining and following step by step directions?  Does it depend?

A customer (this guy is sticking by old fashioned maps to get around) told a story about his daughter.  She landed a new job, entered the address into her GPS device and drove to work.  She drove to work every day for two months.  On the morning her GPS malfunctioned, she could not find her way to work.

Losing my sight is easier to imagine than being in the fix that woman was in.  No one (I think) chooses to become blind, yet people everywhere are choosing to abandon the ability to direct their own physical movement through… well, do we have a word for what isn’t cyberspace?  Oh yeah, space.  aka Reality.

Every day people walk into the map store and say “I’m looking for a good map of…”

No one ever asks for a crummy map, or even a so-so one.

I never thought about this more than I do about other bits of habitual verbal filler.  “Good for what?” I usually ask, in order to be helpful.  I might mention that I try not to deal in bad maps at all unless there is no alternative for that particular coverage, in which case even a poor map can be the Best Map.

Today I realized that customers who ask for a good map are those who actually want to read the maps!  They want to do more than decorate the wall.  They go on to complain about an inadequate map they already have, or more often these days, some electronic “solution.”  These are customers who seriously plan to learn from their map, or to help others learn.

(Please do not think I want to turn away customers who are only in the market for sofa sized art).