Generalizations are often misleading, but I think it's fair to say that some people (specifically those of the male gender) are notoriously reluctant to ask for directions — even when it's painfully clear to everyone else traveling in their company that they are "lost."

If you're not one of those people, I'll bet you know someone (and probably more than one someone) who is – even in this day of portable GPS devices.

The rationalizations offered by those refusing to seek help are as varied and variable as the individual circumstances that bring those hesitations to light: a shortage of time; certainty that, however lost they seem, they actually know where they are (or will be shortly); a lack of trust in the reliability of the instructions they might receive; the inconvenience of stopping … this despite the knowledge (frequently even among those reluctant to ask directions) that the modest investment of time to seek assistance will likely be far less than the time (and aggravation) that they will expend trying to find their own way.