system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why ship navigator use port & starboard and not just the simple left right?
gpt
Starboard and port are the same direction regardless if you are facing the front or the back of the ship.  If someone is yelling out instructions you want to know which direction they mean without having to know what direction they are facing, and they want the same direction to make sense regardless of which way all the people following the direction are facing.