Fools

What A Fool Believes

But what a fool believes, he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
Than nothing at all

Are you a fool to always believe a GPS?

A GPS is marvelous device.  But while it might be marvelous, it can be wrong.  In 2006, when GPS in cars were very new, I was riding with my brother-in-law to his son’s wedding rehearsal dinner.  We were both from out of town, so he was showing off the GPS in his new car to get directions to the restaurant where the dinner was being held.  He was following the GPS’s directions like a good soldier.  But when the GPS said to make a left turn into the restaurant, I stopped him because that that was the lobby of the restaurant, and the parking lot was across the street.  The GPS knew where the restaurant was, but it didn’t account for the fact that a car had to park in the restaurant’s parking lot.

A few years later on a family vacation on the Pacific Coast, we had rented a car but taken our own portable GPS device with us.  It flawlessly predicted that we were stuck in traffic on I-5 way south of Portland, Oregon because of an accident  on the Columbia River Bridge.  It re-routed us to get off at the next exit, onto Wheatland Ferry road and onto an agricultural ferry, along with farm equipment,  to cross the Willamette River.  Because of the GPS we were able to reach our destination on-time, despite a 5 hour back up on I-5. So the GPS was very smart, correct?

The very next day, we needed some supplies and asked the GPS for directions to a store.  We followed the GPS’s directions into a forest and onto what became a logging road.  The GPS had assumed that our rental car could use this logging road to cross a mountain.  To avoid a claim with the rental car company, I demured and forgot about that store.

A GPS has lots more knowledge. But it is a fool.  It believed a restaurant’s lobby was the same as its parking lot, and a rental car was the same as a logging  truck.  Be wise and listen to a fool, but don’t always believe a fool.