Perhaps the most important thing one can do in life is to help elevate others up to a greater potential. Helping
another find a solution to a problem or a direction to an answer not only benefits the greater society and human
collective potential, but feels wonderful for the individual providing the help. In today’s era of interconnectedness and
instantaneous information access, the ability to reach out and provide help and insight has never been simpler. With
programs such as Google Map’s Local Guides providing a channel for community sharing and growth, all can have the
opportunity to connect, grow and explore.
Technology is, however, not without its own flaws. Computer programs, just like people, grow and develop as
time passes, problems present and solutions for such problems are found. It is with one of these unforeseen problems
arising during my use of Google Maps that I have an interesting story to share.
One of my favorite features of Google Maps and the Local Guides program is the timeline feature. lts so fun to
scroll back through my timeline and remember all of the fun places that I have gone to. Being able to at a whim find out
how many miles one has travelled in a given day, week, month or year is a testament to how far human ingenuity has
come in the modern day. It should come of no surprise that when my timeline stopped functioning due to an error in the
program, that I worked non-stop to find a solution to restore its functionality.
The problem that presented was an error that did not allow my timeline to connect to the google map’s server.
What I discovered after many hours of troubleshooting is that it was caused due to an error with the compass calibration
system being off and as a result places I would visit no longer would save to my timeline. After discovering a solution to
the problem, I promptly created a post on the reddit forum dedicated to google maps. I did this in an effort to help any
other users who may find themselves with the same problem.
Within a day of my post, another user replied thanking me for my help in solving their problem. Then several
weeks later another replied saying the same as well. Even as recently as last week, which is five months after the post
was submitted, a user replied thanking me for my help in solving the issue for them! If one is to google the description of
the error, my reddit post is presented as one of the top results.
I feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose in my helping others through this post. It is perhaps the most
interesting thing I have done as a local guide, and I believe that it represents a core fundamental of what it means to be a
local guide. To reach out to others in the community and share one’s own insight and experience to elevate another to a
higher understanding and greater potential.
Link to Post described:
