What If Wisdom Works Like GPS?
What if GPS is a pretty good stand-in for universal wisdom?
Stay with me. You know I love a good correspondence.
You get in the car and GPS asks for two pieces of information: Where are you now? Where do you want to go? That’s pretty much it.
It does not ask where you should be by now.
It does not ask why you are still in Winston-Salem when, according to the plan you made five years ago, you were supposed to be somewhere else entirely.
Nor does it ask why you’re in the middle of Oklahoma when your strategic plan had Paris clearly marked with a star.
It does not pull up your travel history and say, “Interesting. I see we’ve attempted something similar before. Are you sure you want to try again?”
It locates you. Then it begins calculating from here. No judgment.
I find that enormously interesting. And, frankly, a little comforting.
Getting started
Once you enter a destination, your GPS with a strong signal can show you several possible routes. Fastest. Fewest tolls. Avoid highways. Maybe there’s a stop you want to make along the way. You choose based on what matters to you.
Then you start driving. And once you’re underway, you generally don’t need the entire 400-mile journey displayed on a tiny screen. You only need to know that your next turn is in 2.3 miles. Away you go.
I often tell clients that when they can see their five-year plan in exquisite detail, they may be looking at a mere projection of what they know today. Our brains like having a plan, but there are simply too many variables that haven’t happened yet for it to be real: people you haven’t met; information you don’t have; technologies and opportunities that don’t yet exist; things you’ll learn that will change what you want. Not to mention pandemics and other natural disruptors. You simply can’t know now what you will know then.
Of course, at any given moment, a direction is useful. A destination is useful. And Wisdom works with the road that actually appears.
A connected GPS does this beautifully. Traffic snarl develops? Update. Road closes? Update. Accident ahead? Update. Faster route becomes available? Would you like it?
GPS has no loyalty to the route it calculated forty minutes ago. It incorporates the newest information available and recalculates.
Imagine bringing that little attachment to our own “strategic” five-year plans.
Along the way
Here’s my favorite part of GPS Wisdom: When you miss a turn.
GPS does not sigh. It does not say, “Unbelievable. I literally told you to turn left three different times.” There is no judgment. No disappointment. No preaching about how much easier your life would be if you had paid attention.
It simply recalculates from where you are now.
I’ve missed turns without even realizing it because I was traveling with my usual local settings on. At home, I don’t need spoken directions. In unfamiliar territory, those alerts suddenly matter. Another useful reminder: settings that work beautifully in familiar terrain may not give us enough information somewhere new.
Sometimes recalculating takes you back to the original route. Sometimes it finds another way entirely. And occasionally that missed turn takes you somewhere you would never have chosen deliberately. Maybe you see something interesting. Maybe you discover a better road. Maybe you drive seven unnecessary miles past used-car lots and a Dollar General and learn absolutely nothing profound.
Fine. You still haven’t ruined the trip.
You may, however, ruin the next 40 miles by spending them psychologically parked back at that intersection. I knew I should have turned. Why didn’t I see that? I always do this. If I hadn’t made that mistake, I’d be there by now.
And while we’re conducting the internal investigative audit of this missed turn plus every missed turn we’ve ever had, we’re missing the road we’re actually on. New opportunities and scenic views are flying by unnoticed.
GPS has already moved on.
When the scenery gets ugly
Between my home in central North Carolina and the beautiful Carolina coast are a number of lonely roads and small towns that have seen better days. Some stretches look swampy and desolate. Others have boarded-up buildings and empty storefronts lining the streets. There are places where I would not want to have a flat tire after dark.
If I interpreted every unattractive stretch of road as evidence that I was going the wrong way, I would never make it to the beach.
GPS doesn’t get nervous because the scenery changed. It doesn’t say, “This doesn’t feel abundant.” It doesn’t confuse an unpleasant stretch of road with a wrong route.
If there is actual information I need to reach my destination, such as flooding, an accident, or a road closure, GPS gives me the information. Otherwise: Continue straight for 17 miles.
There’s something in that.
We often treat discomfort as navigational information when sometimes it is simply terrain.
When you change your mind
GPS has another quality I would happily borrow. It has no opinion about how many times you change your mind.
Enter Charleston … no, Wilmington … uhm actually, Beaufort. Wait … Home.
GPS does not suggest that perhaps you have commitment issues. It does not roll its proverbial eyes or take a snarky tone. It does not claim decision fatigue and go silent.
New destination. New calculation. You’re the boss.
It will also let you drive in circles if that is what you insist on doing. It will keep offering exits. You can ignore every one of them. It will recalculate again. No sarcasm. No spiritual demerits. No “We’ve been over this.”
Just: From here, these are the available routes. You choose.
Which may be one of the most useful correspondences I know for wisdom.
Staying connected
The human mind carries maps. Old maps, often. Maps drawn from our own previous trips and from generations before us, warnings from other travelers, roads that used to exist, places where we once got hurt, “Beyond Here Be Dragons!” markers, and destinations we locked onto years ago that we were supposed to want.
And, of course, live guidance from GPS depends on connection. Lose the signal and you’re back to whatever map was downloaded last.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a downloaded map. It just can’t know what has changed since it was downloaded.
Wisdom seems much more interested in live information.
Where are you? What do you know now? What do you want from here? Tolls or no tolls? Scenic or efficient?
A missed turn requires no self-punishment. A road closure requires no existential crisis. A difficult stretch does not automatically mean turn around.
And no matter how long you have been wandering around, the route can only ever be calculated from the place where you actually are.
Maybe that’s the invitation. Spend a little less time consulting the old map. Notice what the current system is telling you now.
And when you hear “Recalculating!” you might just consider that good news.
