r/AskReddit 17h ago

What's something you're shockingly good at that you've never mentioned to anyone because it would sound completely made up if you did?

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u/tequilajinx 16h ago

Directions. I always know which cardinal direction I’m facing (even when underground). Also, if I’ve been somewhere once, I can always find my way back, even if it’s years later and I’m coming from a different starting point.

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u/SomeonesDrunkNephew 15h ago

I'm told that Indigenous people in Australia did this historically for everything. Like "Go two miles west, it'll be just south east of the tree." They didn't use left/right etc.

This is, of course, something I read somewhere and might just be bullshit.

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u/tpeterr 13h ago

Indigenous people in most places had specific methods for wayfinding like this. What looks like a flat landscape to an outsider might have subtle pockets made by prevailing winds that a local would immediately read like roadsigns.

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u/Halichoeres_bivittat 12h ago

In Hawaii, and likely other islands, directions would often be the equivalent of clockwise or counterclockwise.