I do feel something similar in that I can't really apply a bunch of rules to something. One of the disadvantages of not thinking in language is that I think it

I do feel something similar in that I can't really apply a bunch of rules to something. One of the disadvantages of not thinking in language is that I think it is very difficult to just apply a rule or formula to your thought process when you don't fundamentally understand what the formula is doing at a deeper level. If your models are not being stored in your head as language abstractions, you can't really apply a language abstracted formula to it. Another related problem is that I essentially have no memory for the things other people memorize with ease. I memorize concepts, motions and relationships but I cannot memorize 'labels' at all. I do not know my own phone number for example (2 years with my current one). So yes, I think trivial understanding is difficult with this model because you cannot just catalog a bunch of stock responses and rules for dealing with a certain topic, but deep understanding is far easier because you are not abstracting the underlying principals in a layer of obfuscation, the mental model is a simulation of the system rather than a description. I was useless in calculus until I started visualizing everything in terms of momentum and volume changing over time. Then it started to work. When it was memorize and record, I was useless. But once you have an actual model in your mind instead of a bunch of rules you can just derive the algorithms yourself (or at least get close enough to remember the right one)