INTJs and Sense of Direction

[Rei]

So I've been trying to figure out if a good (or relatively good) sense of direction is an Intuitive thing, or a Sensing thing.

I've got a pretty good sense of direction. I get around places I'm not familiar with pretty efficiently, and I remember how to get to places (after several weeks) after having only been there once or twice. I can learn to get around really confusing buildings with lots of random extensions (like very very old university buildings) without putting too much effort into it (I just generally know which direction everything is).

I'm not the best, but I also know people who just REALLY suck at this stuff. They couldn't figure out how to get somewhere even if they had a map. I mean, maybe they're just dumb, but they're pretty capable otherwise???


Thoughts?

[bikerscars]

i run a shipping department :thumbsdown:

through experience it has become excellent :thumbsup:


with the occasional hiccup to prove i'm human

[The Rose]

My sense of direction is a joke in our family. I do ok with a map sort of. Maybe I should have voted horrible instead of bad.

[generalowk]

I have an excellent sense of direction.

[Vayate]

I usually unconsciously map out an area as I walk through it, so my sense of direction is decent. That said, I do sometimes have issues relating the location of one area to another or doing north/south/etc. I also notice that I often have trouble with relating the words "left" and "right" with the concepts they represent.

[Jezebel]

My internal sense of direction is bad, but I have no issues reading a map or following external cues. That is, if I'm paying attention. I usually get lost because my mind wanders and I miss signs.

[deicruxified]

so i have never been lost... but i do find it easier in the forest since you get to feel the place more. intuition i guess. one time i was able to find some of my mates just by listening to the crickets. ;D

[StJimmy]

i have a great sense of direction. lots of time spent outdoors. as long as i can see the sun and i'm wearing a watch i'll always know which way is which :P

but anyway yeah my wife has a terrible sense of direction. she can read a map, but take it away and she's lost.

i had honestly never thought about sense of direction being related to personality.

[GOD]

I used to be poor at "sense of direction", primarily because I was thinking about and observing other things.

Sense of direction is definitely as sensing thing, Now that I specifically devote some attention to noting useful landmarks etc etc I have a better sense of direction.

(Inuition to me is just a combination of sensing and thinking bundled up allowing interesting/unique observations & pathways).

[Natrushka]

I have a sense of direction that freaks out even my ISTJ husband.

I know which direction I am facing most of the time. I give directions to people using "south east corner" or "four blocks west, turn left and continue for 3.5 km".

[thegnat]

Decent. I do *great* with maps. But figuring out a new place on my own is going to take some time. Once I know that place, though, I know it pretty intuitively.

I used to be horrible because I just didn't observe my surroundings. Now that I observe them, I'm a lot better off.

[Firelie]

My sense of direction is awful. *People know by now to never follow me unless I've been to the place in question numerous times. *I'm even worse in the dark...if I go somewhere in the dark, I have absolutely no recollection of the ways we took to get there.

HOWEVER, if I have a map and some streetsigns, I can get anywhere.

[rwyatt365]

My sense of direction is excellent, always has been. Even as a child, I was the official "navigator" when we went on family trips. It was kinda cool telling my father, "turn here, go there".

[BadgerDad]

Not great. But I have found that when I am alone, and MUST get it right, I do fairly well. When I am with a group and someone else is driving, forget it......

[Aoiluna]

I have a horrible sense of direction, and I mean horrible. I think it might be because I never pay attention to where I am going, my mind is always somewhere else. I am however, exceptionally good with maps, and enjoy looking at them for some reason. give me a map and I can get you there. otherwise, ask someone else.

[Paul V]

Pretty good. If I memorise a path, I'll probably always remember it. And if I was distracted or am suddenly lost, I make good guesses, which very often lead me to the right path. Too bad I get distracted quite often...

I agree with the above poster completely about maps. I simply love them. They're lifesavers.

[zero]

As far as I remember, I never got lost and always can find my way out of places I've rarely been. I also like visualising the whole trip in my mind, either on foot or flying through it.

[Toby]

My sense of direction is excellent, too.

Just like rwyatt365 I was the official 'navigator' in my family.

[WavesSootheMe]

I have an awful sense of direction. I have a high IQ, but my spatial abilities drag it down a bit. Imagining a 3D object and manipulating it in my mind has always been a challenge. I can read a map no problem, but translating it into what I actually see is something quite different. I need exact directions to follow in terms of left and right with street names and/or landmarks. North, South, East and West never help me. I instead rely upon my excellent memory. Unfortunately, my memory of directions is rote. Stick me at a new starting point and turn me around a couple of times and, I'll be completely lost again. I am the queen of U-turns. When lost I attempt to rely on my intuition, but it's rarely correct. The better bet is to do the exact opposite of what my intuition tells me.

[Ryokurin]

As long as I know where I am or where about I want to go I can usually figure it out. Its been a lifesaver in some areas. typically if I've been to a place once I can get there again, unless its like a different time of day, but I'm usually close.

[TruorTupnm]

Another official navigator. The ability (don't most people have this?) and enthusiasm for reading maps, combined with not wishing to jostle with those in the back as well as the preference of never falling asleep got me that job. Other than that, I don't get lost easily. I'll always seek out a map of someplace that I don't know. If one doesn't exist, it is not so difficult to pay attention. I haven't been in a situation where I haven't paid any attention at all, so who knows how great I'd be at finding my way home after being beaten, blindfolded, and tossed out of an airplane? :huh:

[cielo market]

*pushes button for OnStar*

[amei]

I'm usually pretty good with directions. If I do get lost, which I admit happens, I never feel lost because I always know how I got lost and how to fix it. What I do have trouble with though is giving directions to people. It makes sense to me how to get from A to B, but I always feel that my way is never quite clear to most other people.

[BloozeGit]

During my first time driving a rental car with GPS in the US, I thought is was way cool and impossible to get lost. Turned out that the damned GPS gave such ambiguous directions, plus the distances where in miles (I'm a metric guy) and it was absolutely frustrating.

I ended up falling back on Google maps and my sense of direction. I'm better off with a mental picture of the road to where I want to go and a few names to remember where to turn, rather than a disjointed female voice telling me where to go.

[Br3nti5]

I can usually find my way - I tend to get lost quicker if I start questioning my sense of direction instead of trusting myself.

[Hypomanic]

I have a sense of direction that freaks out even my ISTJ husband.

I know which direction I am facing most of the time. I give directions to people using "south east corner" or "four blocks west, turn left and continue for 3.5 km".

You are one of those people whom I get directions from then immediately forget. :thinking: I like to map out visually where I am, so I need visual cues.

[uncool]

I have a very high N (90%+) and I have a bad sense of direction. However, when I'm lost, I just go to the direction that 'feels' right and I usually will reach the destination. Maybe I unconsciously use a strange way of remembering roads.

[emma4enriquexx]

Mine's pretty bad, would have thought inntuitives would be good at it but that obviously isn't the case...

[Geminii]

Oh, cool, zombie thread.

Maps aren't a problem. I can often glance at one and then navigate my way around whichever place it depicted - for a couple of hours, anyway. I can determine direction from checking shadows on the ground (not so good at night or when overcast). However, I'm not good at building up a proportionally-accurate map just from walking or driving around an area. I think I store it in a logically-connected form. Likewise, it's always a little weird to see a half-build house or an architectural blueprint and realise "Hey, yeah, all those rooms really do fit inside the external walls without overlapping", because I'm thinking more in terms of individual rooms than simply floor areas divided by walls. You could probably build a house with TARDIS rooms connected four-dimensionally and I wouldn't notice until I'd been there a couple of months.

[AnnoyingPony]

I can read maps but I'm terrible at actually applying the directions I know to good use.

[BrooklynBoy]

I have a bad sense of direction. It's very easy for me to get lost.

[Thinktress]

Bad. I'm great with maps, but I can't find my way the 20th time I've been there if I don't STILL HAVE the map. I just don't pay attention to location most of the time. I'm always thinking about something else.

On the other hand, I have great spatial abilities visually in terms of being able to determine how far away something is, how much assorted junk will fit in the trunk of any given car, how far away the curb is, where the center is, etc.

It almost seems weird to me, like a sense of direction should go hand in hand with the rest of it. Oh well.

[brecia]

Bad. I'm great with maps, but I can't find my way the 20th time I've been there if I don't STILL HAVE the map. I just don't pay attention to location most of the time. I'm always thinking about something else.

On the other hand, I have great spatial abilities visually in terms of being able to determine how far away something is, how much assorted junk will fit in the trunk of any given car, how far away the curb is, where the center is, etc.

It almost seems weird to me, like a sense of direction should go hand in hand with the rest of it. Oh well.


I think i have the same ability,too.

As for the sense of direction problem,i hate it.Sensors are great on this area.They can think the shortcuts that goes to somewhere and they can draw a map of a place for you if you ask them ,it is so easy for them!
And they surprise when you get lost or turn the wrong way.

[ya lyublyu tebya]

Despite thinking in terms of "this way" and "that way" for left and right (dyslexia, ugh), I have a sense of direction that scares people. ...If only they would actually listen to me, rather than after an hour of being lost, then finding their way back to the original place, saying, "I should have listened to you."

[joerobertson]

Oh, geographic direction... that for me is just decent.

Thought it was asking mental direction :)

[Brant Drake]

I've noticed a dichotomy in terms of my ability to determine direction. If I'm in an urban area I easily get lost and become very frustrated with how poorly the environment is designed, which becomes a cyclical thinking pattern.

If I'm outdoors in a wilderness setting, I never get lost - even though I wander around a lot more. Possibly because I'm paying more attention to my surroundings or that I'm allowed to do it "my way."

I don't know what that means, but it's become a running joke in my family. I just tell them that when civilization collapses and we all revert to tribal warfare they'll be glad to have me along.

[Obs3ss3d]

Me and that guy senseofdirection have never got along, at all. But map and I are best friends but, only on paper.

[Episteme]

I lived my whole life in one area and in my late twenties moved somewhere very different. Back home, you could spin me around and drop me anywhere in a 200 mile radius in the city or the country and I'd find my way home.

After about 8 years here, if I'm not paying attention, I could get lost down the road.

Back home the roads had reason. Here there's one major road with a thousand smaller connecting roads, none of then perpendicular, all of them curvy. I don't pay much attention here because I can just ask my husband, so that could be part of it.

In general people hand me the map on a road trip. Being able to follow a map isn't quite the same thing. I voted 'decent'.

[Cooper]

I have always said, because it is painfully true, that if you put me in the woods, no problem, but put me in the city and I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag.

[Mader]

Above the Mason-Dixon line, great

Below the Mason-Dixon, lousy.

Why? I have no idea, but it is true.

Maps are easy to read, I just cannot find North and South; yes, I know where the sun rises and sets

[Lucius]

i guess its decent, during the recent years i have mastered the difference between left and right. however, i still do not know where is east and where is west.... but at least, my direction is great in places i am familiar of, and bad without a map in places i am not familiar with. it balances out, hence decent...

[t3hrubikscube]

I'm not good with maps and I tend to get lost if I'm fairly unfamiliar with a place. However, if I go to a place often (like a new school, etc.), I can figure it out after just a couple of days.

I can figure it out. It's not something that's super natural for me, but I can almost always end up figuring it out.

[seeyouatx]

I'm good at navigating myself or leading a group around, but if someone asks me for directions, it's terrible. For me, it's all about observation of my surroundings, but not necessarily knowing the street names.

Although, I do know how to navigate a map and compass, if necessary, but I'd rather just follow my internal compass instead.

[Episteme]

Above the Mason-Dixon line, great

Below the Mason-Dixon, lousy.

Why? I have no idea, but it is true.
Maybe that's my problem, I moved south of the Mason-Dixon.

[paulm]

I'm so good at getting lost I got a compass for a birthday gift. But I enjoy getting lost if I have the time, I'll have lots of "ooo so this place is actually quite near the other place"-moments.

I'm getting better at reading maps though.

[schizophrenia]

I'm no good with names of streets. I'm more of a visual/memory person.

[Silverity]

I'm no good with names of streets. I'm more of a visual/memory person.

I'm the same.

When I worked in the cafe I had a tourist come and ask me directions to the skytrain. Now, I know exactly how to get there, but do you think I know ANY of the street names? Heck no. They just don't stick in my brain.

I drew her a map, with useful landmarks like "the tall building covered in ivy" and "the grove of trees in the fork of two roads", feeling more than a little inadequate. To my surprise the tourist was absolutely delighted and reassured me that she followed landmarks ten times better than street names.

So I'm guessing we're hardly rare :D

[Marcia]

My sense of direction is very good. It's my best quality. My tombstone will read, "Here lies Marcia. She had a good sense of direction."

However, I do hate left and right. I never get those left. I mean, right.

[Serendip]

I'm ok as long as I've got a map and I'm left alone to read it. But I do have a bit of a reputation for getting lost and I'm pretty awful at remembering street names.

It's an interesting question though because I remember at an MBTI session years ago when the trainer was trying to illustrate the difference between the Ns and Ss. He asked a couple of Ns to give directions from the training room to the city centre (we were about 2km from the city centre) and they both gave vagueish directions starting with 'It's over that way.." followed by accurate, but somewhat imprecise directions that gave key points, but left out a lot of detail. Then he asked a couple of participants with S preferences and the difference was very marked - very specific and very step-by-step. One of them started with "Go out of the training room, turn right, go down the stairs, turn right again, go out the door onto G. Road... etc". Very accurate but incredibly detailed and I know if he was giving me those directions I'd have tuned out and got lost anyway! Unless he wrote them down of course - then I'd be fine. The difference between the two ways of providing directions had the training group in stitches.

[visitor]

I always know which direction I'm facing, but I get lost because I second guess myself. I miss turns that way. I'm also good at remembering how to get to new locations. I don't use maps unless it's out in the country where I don't have very many landmarks to go by.

I hate getting directions from sensors. They always add in details that only mix me up. I just need an address and which direction to go. Every city has a system that generally used some sort of logic.

I would say that INTPs have a very bad sense of direction.

[hongi]

Over the years I have been a navigator in the Navy, a Chief Cartographer and now Coordinator of Geomatic Services for a large government agency, So, after thirty-two years working these areas I can safely say I have an excellent sense of geographic direction . . . though I still regularly get lost in my thoughts! ;D

[JustMel]

I have an excellent sense of direction and can read maps too. I give directions by N,S,E and W and have to rethink how to explain to someone who doesn't know their directions.

[AnimalEssence]

I have a good sense of direction. I've gotten from one city to another just on a feeling of "hmm, I think its THAT way" and simply driving THAT way. If I know the city is south of me, I just drive south.

Even when google or my GPS has an old map that hasn't been corrected yet, I can easily manage to find my own way around the problem area and then get the GPS to reroute.

[acyckowski]

With a good map, I can find anything. Without a map, I get lost backing out of my driveway. GPS only serves to make sure I arrive at the right spot at the end of being lost.

[Thinker]

I have a great sense of direction. Give me a map and I can find my way anywhere.

It is interesting to note however, how strongly I subconsciously recognise north/south/east/west from the sun as well as other visual clues (eg being in sight of the coast).

When travelling in the northern hemisphere, I can get north and south mixed up.
When travelling on the west coast I have to think hard about east and west....I live on the east coast.

[Warrior]

My sense of direction is pretty good. I can usually get to where I am going, even in unfamiliar areas, if I have a vague idea of where it is relative to where I started. Once I get there, I'm very good at remebering how to get there again. With a map, I can't recall ever having been lost. If there is any doubt about where I am, I prefer to use a paper map over any of the in-car GPS systems.

[jonnyb]

Good direction taker. Just don't ask me to point which way is north while I am in an unfamilier building.

[EmmaKynikos]

I have an excellent sense of north, south, east, west. Don't ask me the difference between left and right. I have no clue or mild dyslexia.

[shytiger]

I have an excellent sense of north, south, east, west. Don't ask me the difference between left and right. I have no clue or mild dyslexia.

Me too. My internal coordinate system must be Earth-fixed.

I think sense of direction has to do with being visual-spatial versus verbal which is not necessarily type specific. My Dad's an ISTP, highly visual, and has a good sense of direction. My wife's also ISTP, highly verbal, and has an awful sense of direction. I'm also highly visual and have a good sense of direction. I can often find a place without directions or a map by knowing its general direction.

[emirzo]

it is easy to navigate in nature because i just look for signs of direction Like something like the ants palace. or the sun or stars.

[Synamon]

I have a great sense of direction. I only have to glance at a map to understand how to get somewhere and even without a map I can usually find my way around an unfamiliar city. I was always the navigator for my hiking group, the rest of them couldn't read a map to save their lives, literally.

[SelfMadeBum]

I get lost easily and often.

[reckful]

I live in an area that's mostly a grid of streets oriented north-south or east-west. If you ask me about a store or restaurant I went to once several years ago, I may not be able to tell you exactly what street it was on (although I'll remember what general area it was in) or remember any physical details of the building, but I'll almost invariably be able to tell you whether it was on a street that ran north-south or east-west, and which side of the street it was on (e.g., I'll correctly remember that it was on the east side of a north-south street).

[IAMME]

Let's just say I never leave home going to a new destination without a mapquest direction or the GPS on in my car. Before the use of these items, I needed point by point detailed directions to go places. I didn't really drive until I was almost 30 so I used public transportation most of my life and just asked the bus driver or train conductor. Maps, and public transportation guides that are made for tourist are written so a 5th grader can understand them. If I was riding in a car with someone else I didn't really worry about the directions, I enjoyed the scenery.

However, I live in a huge spawling metropolitan area and have traveled all over the country and even to some foreign countries on my own. Having a poor sense of direction has been overcome by my ability to plan, follow directions and seek out helpful people.

[aragorn]

GPS is the single most important invention in the last 20 years.

[jahcoozi]

Oh god I have mazeophobia. Anytime I go somewhere unfamiliar, I get lost. 99.9% of the time. I freak out and start having panic attacks. I hate it! I have a major fear of going anywhere I've never been because I know I'm going to get lost.

HORRIBLE sense of direction. Totally lost.

[azelismia]

Left and right: I have to look at my hands to tell. East west north and south.. I can usually figure it out if I concentrate.
map reading.. I am ok at that.

do I get lost often.. all the time. But I enjoy being lost, especially in strange cities. So how does that relate to sense of direction? Am I good at it but never demonstrate it because I enjoy being lost? or have I just learned to embrace the inevitable?

I can't answer.

[Vagrant]

Pretty good sense of direction myself. As long as I know which way is north or have a common landmark, I can always find my way. I also memorize places I've been.

Example -- I explored the back routes and piazzas of Venice with ease and found my way back to the docks in 30 minutes (with all the winding streets and 3 story houses). I mentally set a direction as north and used that as a bearing. Basically I set a mental compass -- the docks were set as south and the other direction north. It was remarkably pinpoint.

[ocean316]

Been there done that.

[Cuddlefish]

I always know where my car is. Always.

[SwordAcolyte]

I grew up in the mountains and have always had a super good sense of direction in the woods, but man, in the city I get lost easily. Its pretty strange, inside buildings I can be disoriented fast, but out in deep woods, or across rivers etc? Not a problem.

[admittedheretic]

I have to say a phrase in my head to remember which way is east and west. Never Eat Shredded Wheat. Inside of buildings I get often get lost, but only because I don't pay attention to my surroundings. Once I get to know a place I have a very vivid sense of its spatial characteristics, but it is void of any images, any colors. That is all that really matters as far as my personal navigation. There is a difference between knowing right and left and a sense three dimensional space.

If INTJs do have issues with sense of directions it would further suggest INTJ really is a broadened phenotype of the autistic spectrum.

[TheBlackKnight]

I go by cardinal directions and have a mental map in my head, oriented north. It messed me up when I stop to look at a map and it's oriented the way I'm facing instead of due north.

As for the sense of direction, it's mostly nonexistant, to the point my foster parents joke about it. I'm terrible with directions if I don't have that mental map in my head, and I won't make one if I don't find it necessary.

[Glass Forest]

I have a horrible sense of direction. I tend to pay hardly any attention to where i am, so if i'm walking with someone, once i reach a destination i simply can't remember details on how we got there. I thought it would be a sensing thing and connected my lack of Se ability (as determined via a cognitive function test) to it. From what other people have said there doesn't seem to be a definite correlation to type and strength of ability of sense of direction though, i've also asked this question before since mine is so bad.

[GrnEyz]

I very rarely get lost as long as I have some hint of N, S, E, W.... shadows on a sunny day... sunrise/sunset... moss growing on the northerly side of a tree/structure in an otherwise open area.

[cmrain]

I am struggling to find any directional orientation.

Never been good with maps. Can read if must.
Compass is a necessity even in the city.
Not even remotely good at following a sequential list of directions.
Easily get lost downtown. Easily get lost in beach cities, mountains and anything with a grid. Intuition often fails me.

Tend to learn places and routes by 'familiarity' over years time when I move to a new city.

[idem]

I have a horrible sense of direction. I've lived in the same town for years, and I can't remember how to get to places I've been hundreds of times without specific directions. When I'm walking around on unfamiliar streets, I often find I have no idea which way I came from. I also have no ability to formulate an idea of the layout of a city, no matter how many times I've traveled there.

[Murky Muse]

I get lost rather easily if left to my own devices, but have no problem following directions. I just not in the habit of paying enough attention to my surroundings; what's going on in my head is more interesting.

[Synchronicity]

My sense of direction is very good. I have gotten lost on occasion, but I rarely have difficulty reorienting myself. Mostly, I think this is because I have an easy time keeping track of my bearings regardless of local topography. It is particularly useful when driving in the mountains, where roads curve and wind all over the place.

Reading maps is also easy for me. I love maps. I've been known to read them for no other reason than for pleasure.

[europeanwoman]

I have an exceptionally good sense of direction, to the point where people tease me about it since I'm female. (hello, clichee!)

Within a group, I will usually be the designated map reader. I've loved maps and geography since I was a child and have no problems finding my way around a new town as internal mapping takes place as I go. I think I may have been an explorer in another life. ;)

[refuge]

I want to say I have an almost-intuitive sense of direction; it doesn't really matter if I'm on foot or driving either, as I can usually get a "feel" of where I am, or where I'm going.

[heartland]

I would have thought sense of direction is more tied in with spatial awareness than intuition vs sensing.

Mine is comparatively poor overall. If I'm in a large building with lots of corridors it is quite easy for me to lose my bearings.

I once added close to 100kms to a journey by driving in the wrong direction up a motorway heading north when I should have been heading south. To be fair I wasn't familar with the motorway system in the UK.

[Jeremy]

Whenever I go some where new I take a map and look for street signs and other visual cues. Otherwise, I will get lost.

My biggest problem with direction is that I daydream so much I don't really internalize visually the places I have been.

[BFrost1]

Excellent sense of direction no matter where I am. I could never imagine not knowing where I am. If I'm traveling or in an unfamiliar place, I look at a map and I can remember how to get to where I need.
I HATE giving people directions. Why can't I just tell you the address and you go look it up on google maps?? Oh I forgot; it is because you are illiterate. ;)