GOOGLE Maps Saves Us From Forest- And Teaches Us About Life

We were in her black car. My mother’s. It was a 2007 Volkswagen Passat. I’m not a car buff, so it was the less fancy model than the one that is out now.

She pumped the acceleration any time we were going around a curve. The ride was the equivalent of a tank under fire in World War 2. We were late to a wedding.

It wasn’t an important wedding, just the friend of a friend of a relative. You could count the real-life mutual friends our family had with them on one hand. Either way, we promised we would be there. And that was a promise my mother, who was driving, intended to keep.

We jumped over a pothole, the lift from the speed we were going at protecting us from the worst of the impact. My mother requested that I get Google Maps.

And yes, I AM a guy, and I do use Google Maps sometimes. I even ask for directions now and again. Pff.

I take it out and I don’t say anything, because it’s not 2012 when everyone thought talking to your phone was the coolest thing. I simply type in a pub near the location of where we were supposed to be going.

No, we were not going to the pub. This was a SUPER rural area. Country hicks considered this place TOO rural. Mailing addresses read something like: “the half-built house on the 40-acre field near Jerry’s pub but not the one with the brown door…”

So we looked for a certain pub on Google Maps, clicked the ‘Get Me There’ button and off we go. The journey was going to take about an hour and we were already late. Plus, we had already been given directions, forgotten them, then been given them again. We were on our own.

We drove through lots of little villages and too many fields to count. If counting sheep worked my mother would have fallen asleep at the wheel thousands of times. We were nearly there.

Then we get to an intersection. One road looked a bit dodgy. It was worn and seemed to be going in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be going. It was going to the right. Google Maps said to go to the right. Google Maps’ lady practically screamed it at us as my mother drove to the left.

Google Maps, at that point, had let us down 20 or 30 correct turns and we were nearly there. Because we were nearly there, the signs, and my mother’s sense of direction, she thought she knew the rest of the way. We were 10 minutes away, according to Google Maps.

So we take the left. The pretty road soon turned narrower as we entered a woodland.

“The way out is through here” — my mother, lost

We keep driving and my mother requested I turn the screaming lady that was Google Maps off. The last thing I remember seeing was that it showed that we had to turn around. Usually, it updates to the new routes and plans one ahead. It didn’t.

We were in a forest. We drove on just to get coverage for our phones. We spent another hour driving through mucky paths and covering our car with mud.

Eventually, we had to call for directions again. We had to have the bride, who was busy getting ready, give us directions from exactly where we were lost.

She then handed the phone to somebody else, who got us back on the main road and eventually, a further half-hour later, to her house.

The moral of the story is don’t go to country weddings. Just kidding. Thank God you can’t ‘Thumbs Down’ on Medium.

Google Maps was the ‘Expert’, in this case. We followed most of its advice, until we didn’t. The end result was not what we were promised and my mother blamed it on the app.

I think we often do this, but I can only speak for myself. After this, I noticed myself when I follow advice from experts and leaders in their fields, that I only follow it half-way.

‘3 Rules to Lose Fat Healthily’ — “Great, I’ll only follow 2”…. “This diet doesn’t work.” Sound familiar?

When somebody has put in the effort to write HOW they became SUCCESSFUL at something they’re REALLY, REALLY good at, sometimes, it pays to listen.

Try it first. Do it the way they say, unless you know there’s something really, really wrong about the advice that doesn’t apply to you. But don’t complain about people who are trying to help you when you don’t follow their advice properly.

My friend bought a program for bodybuilding. Immediately, he customized it for himself, ie. he replaced stuff with things he liked. He didn’t see any results within months and got a refund. I don’t think that’s fair.

GUESS WHAT! I don’t have a product to plug now. This is just a mistake that I know I’ve made a lot in my life: Not following advice to completion.

And I don’t know everything, so I could be wrong.

It’s worth a thought. Have a good day.