7 ms·

It's like the people who can see the calendar in their heads. You ask them about an exact date from 1969 and they'll say, oh yeah, it was Monday. Or people who

It's like the people who can see the calendar in their heads. You ask them about an exact date from 1969 and they'll say, oh yeah, it was Monday. Or people who don't have an internal dialogue. This is probably the most weird to me because it is common and I can't comprehend how they manage their thoughts.

stavros 3y ago
I manage my thoughts without an internal dialog the same way you do, I just don't "read" them to myself afterwards.
nicolas_t 3y ago
When I was a teen, I discovered some people didn't have an internal monologue and so I experimented in doing that (under the very misguided impression that it would allow me to think faster, to my defense I was a teen...). It's actually possible to switch to that way of thinking relatively quickly if you make the effort, feels strange though.
withinboredom 3y ago
I can think in dialog, or I can think in 'no-words' which is language-less thought. I tend to program while thinking in 'no-words' or when I'm speaking my non-native language (English). When I think in 'no-words,' I sometimes find ideas that cannot be translated and can get stuck. A pretty common one is the idea of 'this-here' and 'this-there' when comparing two things that are currently unlabeled. I have to remember to back up and label the things with language, then compare them. Another common one is when trying to explain complex interactions that are quite simple in 'no-words' and I have to start diagramming things, then explain the diagram in language.
- hoseja 3y ago
  I think this may be common with us multilingual shaperotators.
- shannifin 3y ago
  This happens to me a lot when writing fiction; I can see the action or feel the emotion I want, but finding the words to describe can sometimes be very difficult. (Also depends on what time it is, I'm particularly bad at it in the morning.) Related is when you forget a word. You've got the specific meaning in your mind, and you know there exists a word for it, and it's in your brain somewhere, but you just can't get the appropriate neurons to fire to give it to your conscious mind. (And then it might randomly appear to your during some other random task.)
- drdeca 3y ago
  While to some degree I think I’ve had somewhat similar experiences, at other times (when I was a teen) when I’ve specifically tried to think-without-words, I thought I had, and then shortly afterwards either realized or thought I had realized, that I had been thinking with words, and had just been hiding the words from myself?
lordnacho 3y ago
How do we know that that is actually what's happening? Perhaps they don't understand the idea of an internal monologue the way most of us do? Also does it extend to visual imagination? I think of myself as having an internal cinema rather than just monologue.
- 2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
  You might be able to devise a test. Try these things out. Count in your head at a steady pace using words and try to hold a conversation at the same time without losing your timing. Then imagine a moving image of the same numbers steadily ticking over and again try and hold a conversation without losing your timing. The 2nd scenario should be easier. You can do similar things with memorising numbers. Next time you have to enter your OTP, sound out the digits to memorise it before entering it. Then try memorising a picture of the numbers before entering it.
sparrowInHand 3y ago
Thoughts just appear- its like the subconcious just lets them float upwards into you. Which is funny, because when asked how you did arrive at the solution, you just do not have any answer, and then your subconcious makes up a whole story.
mabbo 3y ago
> You ask them about an exact date from 1969 and they'll say, oh yeah, it was Monday That's actually a really simple parlor trick. There's a formula involving modular math. Takes an hour or two to learn it.
Enginerrrd 3y ago
>Or people who don't have an internal dialogue. This is probably the most weird to me because it is common and I can't comprehend how they manage their thoughts Lol, I am someone with no such internal dialog. The idea that you self-narrate every thought in your brain seems utterly baffling to me. And... It sounds absolutely maddening, and really inefficient. Like that must be SO annoying? I think largely in the form of something I call "thought-shapes".

stavros 3y ago

I manage my thoughts without an internal dialog the same way you do, I just don't "read" them to myself afterwards.

nicolas_t 3y ago

When I was a teen, I discovered some people didn't have an internal monologue and so I experimented in doing that (under the very misguided impression that it would allow me to think faster, to my defense I was a teen...). It's actually possible to switch to that way of thinking relatively quickly if you make the effort, feels strange though.

withinboredom 3y ago

I can think in dialog, or I can think in 'no-words' which is language-less thought. I tend to program while thinking in 'no-words' or when I'm speaking my non-native language (English). When I think in 'no-words,' I sometimes find ideas that cannot be translated and can get stuck. A pretty common one is the idea of 'this-here' and 'this-there' when comparing two things that are currently unlabeled. I have to remember to back up and label the things with language, then compare them. Another common one is when trying to explain complex interactions that are quite simple in 'no-words' and I have to start diagramming things, then explain the diagram in language.

hoseja 3y ago
I think this may be common with us multilingual shaperotators.
shannifin 3y ago
This happens to me a lot when writing fiction; I can see the action or feel the emotion I want, but finding the words to describe can sometimes be very difficult. (Also depends on what time it is, I'm particularly bad at it in the morning.) Related is when you forget a word. You've got the specific meaning in your mind, and you know there exists a word for it, and it's in your brain somewhere, but you just can't get the appropriate neurons to fire to give it to your conscious mind. (And then it might randomly appear to your during some other random task.)
drdeca 3y ago
While to some degree I think I’ve had somewhat similar experiences, at other times (when I was a teen) when I’ve specifically tried to think-without-words, I thought I had, and then shortly afterwards either realized or thought I had realized, that I had been thinking with words, and had just been hiding the words from myself?

lordnacho 3y ago

How do we know that that is actually what's happening? Perhaps they don't understand the idea of an internal monologue the way most of us do? Also does it extend to visual imagination? I think of myself as having an internal cinema rather than just monologue.

2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
You might be able to devise a test. Try these things out. Count in your head at a steady pace using words and try to hold a conversation at the same time without losing your timing. Then imagine a moving image of the same numbers steadily ticking over and again try and hold a conversation without losing your timing. The 2nd scenario should be easier. You can do similar things with memorising numbers. Next time you have to enter your OTP, sound out the digits to memorise it before entering it. Then try memorising a picture of the numbers before entering it.

sparrowInHand 3y ago

Thoughts just appear- its like the subconcious just lets them float upwards into you. Which is funny, because when asked how you did arrive at the solution, you just do not have any answer, and then your subconcious makes up a whole story.

mabbo 3y ago

> You ask them about an exact date from 1969 and they'll say, oh yeah, it was Monday That's actually a really simple parlor trick. There's a formula involving modular math. Takes an hour or two to learn it.

Enginerrrd 3y ago

>Or people who don't have an internal dialogue. This is probably the most weird to me because it is common and I can't comprehend how they manage their thoughts Lol, I am someone with no such internal dialog. The idea that you self-narrate every thought in your brain seems utterly baffling to me. And... It sounds absolutely maddening, and really inefficient. Like that must be SO annoying? I think largely in the form of something I call "thought-shapes".