Imagine a map of the world.

There’s a good chance we have a similar picture in our minds: the sort of thing you’d see hanging in a classroom.

The world’s most famous useless map doesn’t look like that.

And please don’t set sail using it for guidance.

This more than 500-year-old map was compiled by Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis.

It’s full of mythology, mainly because of what it gets right: the coastlines of South America and Africa are detailed and surprisingly accurate.

The map also includes what appears to be Antarctica.

If that is our polar continent, it would mean somebody discovered it centuries earlier than previously believed. There are conspiracy theories here that go as deep as the Mariana Trench (aliens and ancient Egyptians are involved).

Piri Reis constructed his map from various accounts and charts. While the stuff he got right is notable, there’s plenty that’s inaccurate:

• North America is shown, but largely off-base
• Some Caribbean islands are missing and a phantom one is included
• Greenland is also MIA—don’t ever forget Greenland!

If you were, indeed, looking for an up-to-date map for navigation, it would not be this famous parchment from 1513.

It may seem like an exaggeration, but documentation is often equally outdated.

Ok, maybe not by centuries, but it can feel like it to developers. A mention of a feature abandoned before it was produced can lead to a futile search.

Sometimes these mistakes exist for years and it takes an external eye to catch them.

We’ve had many “aha moments” during debrief calls for our DX reviews.

Fix the biggest oversights and you’ll see a more engaged developer audience.

And they’ll stop trying to find their way around with that old map.