> You are missing out on a lot. > Maps: Knowing what's around me physically, up-to-date information, public transport routes, etc.

You are also missing out on a lot. In fact, there's an infinite number of things you, too, are missing out on.

Please elaborate....

Not the OP, but we have limited attention bandwidth. For everything the person advocated we spend our attention currency on (additional podcast information, location information, etc.) we are removing it from something else. It’s not that any of that is bad per se, it’s that attention is a zero sum game and we should be cognizant of where we spend it.

> Maps: Knowing what's around me physically, up-to-date information, public transport routes, etc. I found some remote paths on CoMaps in the UK which I walked recently, without the aid of the app I would have not known about these.

And I do something often almost no human in the developed world ever does; I get lost. I wander a bit. I give myself a bit of extra time so I can try alternative routes and see if I figure it out and maybe see a new part of my city along the way.

I look up maps in advance and print those when going somewhere the first time on a tight schedule, but that is about it. For the most part I just actually know my city.

Also research on Taxi driver brains indicates regular reliance on a GPS makes you as much as 20% more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

Turns out not using parts of our brains ever is bad for them.

> AntennaPod: the wealth of information and interesting topics I've been exposed to via podcasts is hard to overstate.

When I want music on the go I take a small standalone Rockbox media player. Can handle podcasts or years of music no problem. No internet on the go needed.

> Home Assistant: being able to control my home, optimise the energy usage, improve security.

I love Home Assistant and I optimize and automate it when I am at home, so I do not need to away from home for short periods. For long periods, I check it from a laptop at a hotel once a day or so and that is plenty.

> AI: I can talk to an AI anywhere. Instantly upload a photo, for example I use this to identity plants.

I use a notebook. I write down things that interest me. I do not need instant answers to every question. That leads to endless answers we remember few of. Better to be intentional with research that we still think matters in a day. Most of the things will not matter in a day, but there is a note just in case.

I once had google glass full time so I was never a second away from information and screens. I had every wearable that existed.

I am thankful for now not being reliant on any of it to be happy and productive on the go. I like to use computers intentionally at fixed locations so I can walk away from them and have a forcing function to exercise other parts of my brain.

I agree with the GP that GPS has opened new possibilities: some modern bikepacking routes were designed around a GPS. For example, there is simply no paper map that would safely get you along the 2000 kilometers through remote desert of the Baja Divide. The trail is not always easily identifiable, and not having a line on a screen to follow risks straying away from sources of water or help in the event of breakdown.

With regard to "GPS brain", a way to avoid it is to do OSM mapping while one is out and about. Then you are forced to get your bearings in a way that activates those parts of your brain, and in most cases you could backtrack or do the journey a second time even if the phone map were unavailable.

I think people discount a lot of the upsides of the parts they are trying to “optimize” out of life.

To your maps example, some of my best road trips are not “optimized” but take two lane roads that are out of the way. Some of my favorite trips involve coming across places we came across by sheer happenstance. I also think boredom is the cocoon of creativity. But we have all but eliminated it from our lives when we constantly have a screen within arms reach.