Why most maps suck

Imagine setting sail on a canoe from Hawaii. Your destination is a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometres away.

You've never seen the island before. You're not even sure it exists, and the body of water you're navigating is over 160 million square kilometres. That's larger than all of Earth's landmasses combined.

Polynesian navigators have been making expeditions like this for thousands of years without modern navigational tools.

Ancient Polynesians used the sun, moon, stars, planets, ocean currents, and clouds as guides. They saw the ocean as a series of passageways rather than a barrier.