Google Maps and I have different definitions of success.

Google Maps wants to get me there.

I want to find something worth remembering on the way.

This creates tension.

Every trip starts with mutual optimism.

It gives me the fastest route.

I nod.

Thirty-seven seconds later, I see a side street that looks… interesting.

Google Maps responds exactly as you’d expect.

“Recalculating.”

Honestly?

Same.

I’ve been recalculating my entire life.

As a kid, adults had a word for this.

Rebellious.

Which, in hindsight, feels a little dramatic.

I wasn’t organizing protests.

I just kept wondering what was down the other street.

Turns out those are very different personality traits.

The older I get, the more I think I’ve been misunderstood by systems designed to optimize for efficiency.

Schools.

Maps.

Occasionally, people.

They all assumed the goal was getting to the destination.

I was much more interested in paying attention.

That’s still true.

If I follow the map exactly, I usually arrive.

If I leave it once in a while…

…I usually come home with a story.

The funny thing is that I ended up building a career the same way.

People often ask me what I actually do.

I don’t think I tell people where to go.

I think I help them notice the street they were already looking at before someone convinced them to stay on the main road.

Maybe that’s why I never liked being called rebellious.

I wasn’t resisting the route.

I was protecting my right to notice something else.

Google Maps still disagrees.

Fortunately…

it recalculates.

So do I.