Driving “lessons”

I like to think of myself as somewhat adventurous, and open to trying new things. I’ve actually rappelled across a canyon in Costa Rica and I take risks every day in my business life. However, on a trip to Scotland in 2001, I learned – quite unexpectedly and quite to my dismay – that my brain is apparently irrevocably hard wired for driving on the right side of the road, seated at the left side of the car. What I had expected to be an easy transition turned out to be a terrifying failure from the moment I tried to pull out of the rental car parking lot. There was apparently no convincing my head that the other lane was a perfectly safe and acceptable place to drive in the lovely land I was visiting. Every nerve and impulse screamed, “Danger! Danger!” How long would it have taken to literally change my mind? I may never know. I failed to get past the first block before realizing that I was a menace to myself and others and turning the keys over to a reluctant Robert.

On a more recent trip out west, we learned the hard way that the shortest distance between two points on a map may start out looking like a brilliant time saver, but quickly degrade into a harrowing crawl up and down a narrow, unpaved switchback mountain road, sans guard rails. Again, don’t underestimate the brain shock that type of unplanned adventure can inflict on a Michigan flat-lander. Other than dodging potholes, Michigan driving is comparatively uneventful. I’m not too proud to confess; I have become wimp when it comes to driving out of my home state.

Now, whenever possible, I leave the driving to locals who know the area and who have mastered the local terrain. Public transport is not only a green and thrifty option, but offers a safe and relaxing alternative to taking the wheel into your own hands. All of this is a roundabout way of explaining why neither of us had any intention whatsoever of driving in Baja. Vast stretches of desolate desert, surrounding a long line of mountains inhabited by banditos waiting to prey on naïve gringo tourists. Well, okay, to be fair, to my knowledge we never came anywhere near a bandito. But how would we know?

However, when our friend Kirk arrived from Austin, he didn’t give driving a second thought. After all, one year he piloted a behemoth motor home across the contiguous 48 states, and up through Canada to Alaska. We promptly rented a car and we set off to explore the two nearby cities of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo.

Kirk, our trusty chauffeur

I should point out that the road up and down the Tourist Zone between those two cities is a beautiful divided highway that puts our Michigan roads to shame. It’s no wonder that I was lulled into a false sense of foreign driving security. The day the men decided to go deep sea fishing, I was enlisted to get up early to drive them to the marina in Cabo San Lucas so that Johna and I could have the car free to ourselves for a mother/daughter road trip. A casual look at the tourist map seemed to put the route to the artist community of Todos Santos down around the bottom of the Baja peninsula and then back up along the Pacific Coast, what appeared to me to be about a 20 minute drive or so. After our treks up and down the modern highway along the tourist zone, and a successful drop-off of the men in the city (where I only got lost for, oh, about 15 minutes or so, and only had to pull over three times) I was naively prepared for an easy and uneventful road trip with my daughter.

I was quickly reminded that one should not rely on past driving experience to set future driving expectations.

Has the internet changed the way you think?

An October article by Reuters reports that the Internet has indeed changed the way we think. Literally.

UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small claims studies have found that Internet searching and text messaging makes your brain more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions. He posits that technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity.

 The downside? Too much online time can create Internet addicts whose only friends are virtual, and has sparked a dramatic rise in Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses.

Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills — and he believes this is an evolutionary change in brain function. In his newly released fourth book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.

“The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills,” Small told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Interestingly, the Amazon reader reviews in place at the time of this writing offer polar opposite views. What do you think?