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I have what's been coined "aphantasia" too--no mind's eye--and I do fine on whiteboard interviews as a general rule. That suggests to me that it's either not yo

I have what's been coined "aphantasia" too--no mind's eye--and I do fine on whiteboard interviews as a general rule. That suggests to me that it's either not your root cause, or it's one you can work around. Personally speaking, I can still conceptualize code (typically as a semi-physical machine, actually), I just can't "see" it. If you're a successful programmer, I'm sure you have some way you conceptualize algorithms too, even if it's not visual. The one thing I'll say is that with your background, it's a shame you filtered yourself out. You might not have gotten through the interview process, but if you retained anything significant from what you cut your teeth on you also might have been more successful than you think.

zanethomas 10y ago
What you say about white board exercises is interesting. Maybe I just don't like them. :)
zanethomas 10y ago
Also, about algorithms, I walk through them a step at a time, keeping track of where things are in my memory. :) Once upon a time I could play an amateur level game of blindfold chess the same way. It never occurred to me that when Walter Browne was playing blindfold chess for money on the beach at Santa Monica before the 1976 US Open, with money and time odds 5:1, that he could actually see the board. I'm less impressed now, but was nowhere near his level anyway even if I could see the board.
- geoelectric 10y ago
  Your memory is better than mine. I work from an abstract level downwards in a "how would a machine that does this thing work" sort of way, decomposing the machine into parts as I go. Interesting how different people have different approaches.
zanethomas 10y ago
on a related note http://nautil.us/blog/why-blind-people-are-better-at-math http://nautil.us/blog/why-blind-people-are-better-at-math It seems that I'm better at doing math in my head than most people. I've wondered whether that might be related to aphantasia.
- geoelectric 10y ago
  That is interesting. I'm pretty excellent at math concepts in general (750 SATs in math once upon a time) but can't do arithmetic in my head to save my life. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there's a relationship there, especially for processes like multiplication or long division where you have to hold an intermediate result.

zanethomas 10y ago

What you say about white board exercises is interesting. Maybe I just don't like them. :)

zanethomas 10y ago

Also, about algorithms, I walk through them a step at a time, keeping track of where things are in my memory. :) Once upon a time I could play an amateur level game of blindfold chess the same way. It never occurred to me that when Walter Browne was playing blindfold chess for money on the beach at Santa Monica before the 1976 US Open, with money and time odds 5:1, that he could actually see the board. I'm less impressed now, but was nowhere near his level anyway even if I could see the board.

geoelectric 10y ago
Your memory is better than mine. I work from an abstract level downwards in a "how would a machine that does this thing work" sort of way, decomposing the machine into parts as I go. Interesting how different people have different approaches.

zanethomas 10y ago

on a related note http://nautil.us/blog/why-blind-people-are-better-at-math http://nautil.us/blog/why-blind-people-are-better-at-math It seems that I'm better at doing math in my head than most people. I've wondered whether that might be related to aphantasia.

geoelectric 10y ago
That is interesting. I'm pretty excellent at math concepts in general (750 SATs in math once upon a time) but can't do arithmetic in my head to save my life. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there's a relationship there, especially for processes like multiplication or long division where you have to hold an intermediate result.