
How We Decide Where to Go - dnetesn
http://maxplanck.nautil.us/article/325/how-we-decide-where-to-go
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d--
For everyone else who may be similarly confused as I, due to associating this
with Golang or the direction of a startup: take this title literally.

Subtitle is "Neuroscientists discover a mechanism for brain-wide communication
when selecting a route toward a destination."

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rhacker
My own prefrontal-thalamo-hippocampal circuit is so fucked up. I think modern
technology has actually fucked it up really badly with nav systems.

I used to carefully think through where I would drive (like 10 years ago)
because if I started driving I wouldn't know where the heck to turn, etc.. I
had to actually pre-map things out with a map or printed google map
directions. You know that step-by-step print out they used to provide (maybe
they still do?)

In any case, it's gotten really bad. I start driving - like totally cavalier
like I know what the fuck I'm doing now. I have no clue half the time what my
destination is. But I know within seconds I can get my phone routed somewhere
by saying "Navigate to starbucks".

Problem is, like many other things that comes with driving, I get extremely
frustrated when my cell signal is too weak to communicate to Google. It
actually drives me bonkers. My wife is always telling me to route before I
start driving. 99/100 times I will ignore that sage advice and get frustrated
instead. So yeah, I really need to exercise my "prefrontal-thalamo-
hippocampal" in like a Yoga class or something.

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moneil971
Now I'm reminiscing about driving with printed out MapQuest directions on the
passenger seat. Now I use my phone to make sure I'm taking the fastest route
even when I know the way.

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SketchySeaBeast
I no longer get panicked phone calls from my wife where she's lost and needs
me to get her going in the right direction, even though she doesn't know where
she is. I'm OK with this new reality.

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keiferski
It wasn’t mentioned in the article, but I’ve always been curious if the
paradox of choice / cognitive load of making decisions apply to choosing
routes as well. In other words, does going to the same location (typically an
office) via the exact same route at the exact same time daily reduce cognitive
load? Does it have an effect at all?

As a remote worker, I’ve often wondered if I’d be more productive and able to
“think more deeply” if I just went to the same coffee shop every morning at
the exact same time, rather than stop and decide where to go.

Strictly adhering to a specific route seems to have worked for Kant. [1]

1\. [https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1963-immanuel-kant-the-
errr...](https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1963-immanuel-kant-the-errrr-walker)

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pickdenis
I think you're making an implicit assumption: your brain's cognitive load is
capped singularly. This may not be the case; we may have separate, independent
caps for personal decision-making and work-related problem solving. If you
choose to go to the same coffee shop every day, you may just be increasing
your capacity to make more personal decisions but not really affecting your
work.

~~~
Someone
_”we may have separate, independent caps for personal decision-making and
work-related problem solving.”_

That seems highly unlikely to me. Evolution isn’t fast enough to have evolved
separate systems in the time since we first started separating “personal” from
“work” (at best a few thousand years, more likely at most a few centuries ago
in my layman’s estimate)

