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I have this! It made so much sense to me when I found out. An example: I was always amazed and somewhat confused how police photo-fit artists could create such

I have this! It made so much sense to me when I found out. An example: I was always amazed and somewhat confused how police photo-fit artists could create such a perfect likeness of someone. I thought they must have been endowed with magical drawing skills. What I couldn’t comprehend was that other people would be able to _describe_ someone they’d seen in that level of detail. Even if I think of my wife and kids I can only see the faintest fleeting flicker of their faces in my mind’s eye, and even that is in very murky black and white.

NateEag 5y ago
+100! I'm an aphant and police sketch artists seemed like sorcerors of the Dark Arts to me up until the day I realized most people can visualize.
- jonplackett 5y ago
  It’s funny I can see other comments where people still don’t really understand what it’s like. Nice to meet someone who gets it! Did you realise after finding out you had any coping strategies? I realised it’s why I loved using a computer - photoshop can be my mind’s eye. I even studied graphic design. I’m not a ‘natural’ designer that just instantly creates great designs, but I can put stuff in there and just move it around until I like it!
  - NateEag 5y ago
    I'm mostly just avisual. I did spend several years in high school working on traditional art skills because I thought it would be neat to be a 3D animator. I eventually concluded that while I was making progress, I clearly didn't have the natural abilities some of my friends did, and that it would be a constant struggle to have a career in the field. Obviously, I now understand better why my friends had better natural skills than I did. I used to use mindmapping software extensively to process and think through ideas and their connections (Tinderbox, specifically: http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/ http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/). I now suspect that my other friends weren't as excited by it because they could do a lot of that stuff mentally. These days I mostly figure things out by writing plain text in Markdown files. My inner world is pretty much just words, and that's how I output things now.
ip26 5y ago
I don’t know- I’m still convinced the police artists are wizards. I don’t think I could verbally describe anybody well enough to draw a good likeness even with a photo in my hand. Yet those artists do it.
exikyut 5y ago
> Even if I think of my wife and kids I can only see the faintest fleeting flicker of their faces in my mind’s eye, and even that is in very murky black and white. Hmmm. Supposing that problem were to be applied at a subconscious level to the mechanism that recalls faces, perhaps poor connectivity between visualization and (that area) is one potential reason/mechanism why people have face blindness?
- jonplackett 5y ago
  I do sometimes struggle to recognise people if I don’t know them that well / they’ve changed their appearance substantially. I’m also terrible at finding things. I’ll be looking for, say, the butter in the fridge and it’ll be right there in my field of vision. And then when I find it I think “ooooh, that’s what that looks like!”. This brand of butter I’ve used for years and I couldn’t even remember what colour it was.
pseudalopex 5y ago
Most people can't describe someone that well. Forensic artists ask lots of questions. They can change things until it looks right to the witness. And the successes get more attention than the failures.

NateEag 5y ago

+100! I'm an aphant and police sketch artists seemed like sorcerors of the Dark Arts to me up until the day I realized most people can visualize.

jonplackett 5y ago
It’s funny I can see other comments where people still don’t really understand what it’s like. Nice to meet someone who gets it! Did you realise after finding out you had any coping strategies? I realised it’s why I loved using a computer - photoshop can be my mind’s eye. I even studied graphic design. I’m not a ‘natural’ designer that just instantly creates great designs, but I can put stuff in there and just move it around until I like it!
- NateEag 5y ago
  I'm mostly just avisual. I did spend several years in high school working on traditional art skills because I thought it would be neat to be a 3D animator. I eventually concluded that while I was making progress, I clearly didn't have the natural abilities some of my friends did, and that it would be a constant struggle to have a career in the field. Obviously, I now understand better why my friends had better natural skills than I did. I used to use mindmapping software extensively to process and think through ideas and their connections (Tinderbox, specifically: http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/ http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/). I now suspect that my other friends weren't as excited by it because they could do a lot of that stuff mentally. These days I mostly figure things out by writing plain text in Markdown files. My inner world is pretty much just words, and that's how I output things now.

ip26 5y ago

I don’t know- I’m still convinced the police artists are wizards. I don’t think I could verbally describe anybody well enough to draw a good likeness even with a photo in my hand. Yet those artists do it.

exikyut 5y ago

> Even if I think of my wife and kids I can only see the faintest fleeting flicker of their faces in my mind’s eye, and even that is in very murky black and white. Hmmm. Supposing that problem were to be applied at a subconscious level to the mechanism that recalls faces, perhaps poor connectivity between visualization and (that area) is one potential reason/mechanism why people have face blindness?

jonplackett 5y ago
I do sometimes struggle to recognise people if I don’t know them that well / they’ve changed their appearance substantially. I’m also terrible at finding things. I’ll be looking for, say, the butter in the fridge and it’ll be right there in my field of vision. And then when I find it I think “ooooh, that’s what that looks like!”. This brand of butter I’ve used for years and I couldn’t even remember what colour it was.

pseudalopex 5y ago

Most people can't describe someone that well. Forensic artists ask lots of questions. They can change things until it looks right to the witness. And the successes get more attention than the failures.