For _The New Yorker_, Shayla Love writes about how GPS—a military technology turned daily necessity, and the subject of Katherine Dunn’s new book, _Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World_—has changed the way we move through the world. To test her own skills, Love navigates from North Brooklyn to a park in Queens with a paper map, then sets off on an orienteering course without the trusty little blue dot, where she discovers how rusty her sense of direction really is. > Surprisingly, I still felt an urge to pull out my phone and look at my dot, to confirm what my surroundings were showing me. I started to feel that the true value of orienteering was more akin to that of reading a long book, or baking from scratch, or attending a long classical-music concert.
I wasn’t necessarily tapping into my inner homing pigeon. I was practicing more general skills that get rusty when I over-rely on technology: paying attention, being patient, accepting uncertainty. We made our way to No. 7, on a “prominent tree, east side.” We didn’t find No. 6—a small blow to the ego—but my confidence soared when we found five, four, and three.
The desire to check my dot faded to a low simmer. Tricking it is ridiculously easy.” He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test in the World.
Isabella Kwai | The New York Times | November 24, 2025 | 2,198 words “In a world of GPS and car-hailing apps, some Londoners still want to drive a traditional black cab. First, they must memorize thousands of city streets.” Cheri has been an editor at Longreads since 2014. More by Cheri Lucas Rowlands .
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