He Memorized the World With Google Maps. Now He’s Exploring It. - The New York Times

Few people are better than Trevor Rainbolt at identifying obscure locations online — but there’s even more joy in watching him visit them IRL. By Tomas Weber Back in 2021, a 22-year-old from Arkansas named Trevor Rainbolt shuttered himself in his Los Angeles apartment to memorize the world. For months, he spent his time studying Google Street View from his desk chair. Delivery drivers handed over his meals; a barber came to style his hair. After a while, his memory grew planetary. When you see cabbage-like plants thriving along the sides of a Russian country road, he learned, you’re most likely looking at Sakhalin Island. On a bridge lined with pea-green pavement? You’re above a river in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province. If your vista, but for the sweep of golden grasslands, screams South Africa, you’ll be in Eswatini. Rainbolt’s growing topographical erudition was in the service of winning at an online game called GeoGuessr. The game presents the player with a randomly selecte

Few people are better than Trevor Rainbolt at identifying obscure locations online — but there’s even more joy in watching him visit them IRL. By Tomas Weber Back in 2021, a 22-year-old from Arkansas named Trevor Rainbolt shuttered himself in his Los Angeles apartment to memorize the world. For months, he spent his time studying Google Street View from his desk chair. Delivery drivers handed over his meals; a barber came to style his hair. After a while, his memory grew planetary. When you see cabbage-like plants thriving along the sides of a Russian country road, he learned, you’re most likel