This is a fascinating case! :)
Can you fire him if he doesn't get it? Because it is clearly not difficult. However, it is certainly difficult compared to copy-paste from chat gpt!
I remember I used to remember 100s of telephone numbers, now I know two exactly. I wonder is it similar case.
We were on the fence about firing him or not, he did really well in other areas so we tried to find a spot to put him where he could excel at his strengths and minimize weaknesses. He ended up resigning to go back to school and get his masters degree. His last say was two weeks ago.
It was one of the most strange cases of someone smart in certain areas yet struggling with basic concepts. He even wrote a software program to automate most steps of writing an invoice (we use excel, nothing fancy).
It must be something like this. It's the same for me, I can remember many phone numbers from childhood but so few now.
Also with driving. Certain places I have been dozens of times but I'm not sure I could get there without GPS. Sad to admit it.
I am glad you mentioned the GPS. Current generation a challenged to read a simple map or direction. They are terrible with mental map. I am a field geologist by training and as an adult travelled to many strange places, and it is mandatory for me to have a mental map of area I am going to or frequent. However, even for me I have been dependent of GPS in urban settings. It is just so easy to be able to think and relax on other people's or in this case a machine's direction.
For me it's only challenging when driving a car. Walking or being the front passenger, I usually do very well reading maps. But my family used to travel a lot through France and Spain, and mostly off the main roads, so reading maps and having orientation skill was necessary.
Huh, just remmebered. We once arrived on a new spot in the Alps close to Lago Maggiore in Italy, and I went of on the bike to get some bread. After 1h of driving, I hadn't found a bakery. I didn't speak a word of Italian, yet I managed to find my way back, despite the many turns I had taken to get to a village. I only stopped once to ask for water at a farm, but that was about it. Wasn't able to ask for directions, they didn't take French there, nor English :-D
That sounds like fun. I wonder how you would do on foot in Lagos :)
I think you would do just fine there as well.
Uh, not sure. I did do fine in Quito, without any maps at all, but a just studying the map before I went there the first time. At least whilst there are street names - and if everything fails, people quickly take pitty on me being lost 😅
Street names? What street name? :)
No, can't do that since I have to steer a boat while coordinating. Yeah. That's it. That's the excuse. 😎
From above, it always looks more organized than from within 😅