Hello, cartographer here while a lot of the things she says are right as someone who makes maps for a living I will never use the Equal Earth projection for a world map. The point of a world map is to easily see all ~180 countries at a glance. The new map is objectively worse at it because it basically shrinks everywhere but the countries on the equator and then speeds out. So that mostly means Africa and Oceania and South America stay roughly the same size. That means North America, Europe, and Asia are all a lot smaller and less legible. That’s like 80% of the world’s population you just made less legible. While true land scale is important it doesn’t necessarily mean it provides the best map. This is then exacerbated when whatever map in question is shrunk down to be a figure in a textbook. So frankly I just see this as political posturing with very little substance.
Furthermore if we did change it there are better options like Winkle Triple.
How work as a cartographer? Honestly thought it would be a dead job by now. What with satellite and internet and all. How many new maps are people really buying?
I mean we use the satellite and the internet to make the maps now. I'm not like hand drawing maps, its all on the computer. It is more widely used now then ever before. Its generally not like a retail transaction where I make a map and a bunch of people buy them, although that does exist for niche activities like hunting or backpacking.
My work specifically is in human services and ensuring the citizens have access to healthcare and support should they need it like food stamps, housing assistance, etc. This can include calculating time and distance to facilities to understand where new facilities should be place to maximize resources or to determine the density by legislative district to report to individual legislators about their district. Cartography is really just the last part where you actually make the map. Most of my job is ensuring the data that map is based off of is correct or has been calculated correctly.
It is generally more paired with Information Technology. Most of my colleagues are data scientists or researchers. I’m 15 years in though so mileage may vary. However it’s a really common tool that is used by other professions. Like biologists use it all the time, hydrologists and geologists all have special uses for it. Natural resources is probably the largest sector but there are businesses that use it a ton too like real estate and construction. So I’d recommend finding a niche that GIS is used for and learning that really well.
I have a BS, but only about ~20 units of it was specifically for GIS (Geographic Information Systems). I know people that are entirely self taught. There is also a whole subset of GIS folks that are essentially just web developers and you don’t need anything but a good portfolio for that.
You can buy a personal license for the software for like $100/year to learn. You just can’t make any money off it per the TOS. There are a few online Junior Colleges that offer associates degrees. If you already have a defeee think you just need a couple classes I don’t know that I’d even get the whole degree.
I might check it out. Doesn't hurt to look, right. Im mid 30s and manager of sales for retail. And I hate it. This temp high-school job has become my coffin. 😕
Yeah if you have managerial experience that is something that is usually needed. Most GIS people have little interest in managing people. We are generally scientists/analysts that want to be technical experts not management.
And most of us work really independently so managing us I don’t think is particularly hard.
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u/Narpity 20h ago
Hello, cartographer here while a lot of the things she says are right as someone who makes maps for a living I will never use the Equal Earth projection for a world map. The point of a world map is to easily see all ~180 countries at a glance. The new map is objectively worse at it because it basically shrinks everywhere but the countries on the equator and then speeds out. So that mostly means Africa and Oceania and South America stay roughly the same size. That means North America, Europe, and Asia are all a lot smaller and less legible. That’s like 80% of the world’s population you just made less legible. While true land scale is important it doesn’t necessarily mean it provides the best map. This is then exacerbated when whatever map in question is shrunk down to be a figure in a textbook. So frankly I just see this as political posturing with very little substance.
Furthermore if we did change it there are better options like Winkle Triple.