Driving a car

For me, driving a car has been a learning process that has taken decades. I recently decided to seek inspiration from various articles online about what people think constitutes a good driver, and I took a few things from there, that I have practiced.


Reversing into a parking slot:

I used to drive forwards into a parking slot, and then reverse when leaving, but I read about some advantages and disadvantages, and has practiced reverse parking for some months now, making it my default mode of parking.

Advantages:

• Safety: When I reverse into a parking slot, I reverse into a known space without any traffic. When I reverse out from a parking slot, I reverse out into an unknown space with other traffic, both cars and pedestrians. So there's less risk of accidents when reversing into a parking slot.
• Convenience:  I now find it easier to reverse navigate into a tight parking slot than I usually did while driving forward into it.

Following the speed limit:

I have never been driving too fast, I have never received a speeding ticket. On the other hand, I have for many years strived to hold the needle of the car's speedometer right on the allowed number. However, cars are allowed to show up to 10% more than the actual speed, and most cars show at least 5% more. So I have effectively been driving 5-10% slower than the limit. This has both made me arrive later and waste some minutes every day. But it has also made my driving more dangerous, because other drivers who follow the actual speed limit, would find me very slow and maybe tend to take over, which can be risky business on smaller roads. So now I have found a simple speedometer app on my phone, which I can follow when driving. And it turns out that I can now add around 10% to my speed and still follow the speed limit.


Rehearsing catastrophe braking:

... on small roads without traffic, of course.


I believe it has improved my overall driving skills.

Learning phases

Three phases of learning:

Encoding:

• How I understand the subject and translate it into something comprehensible for me
• Can be enhanced by using all three major methods of learning: auditive (for example by listening to a podcast or a lecture), visual (for example by looking at a diagram, might also be through reading), and kinetic (for example by doing an exercise, writing, getting your hands into stuff)

Storage:

• How I store the subject in my memory
• Can be improved by various techniques, for example visualizing a house with various rooms, where I can put items to remember

Retrieval:

• How I retrieve the subject from my memory
• Can be practiced by thinking back after any learning experience, and trying to recall what I have actually learned
• For example, when reading a book, after each chapter, write down the major things that I remember from that chapter