Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
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Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#2I'm the author of this post, happy to answer any questions.
About me: I was formerly a director of product at FB and a founder of Firefox. My YC startup became FB's first acquisition. I'm focusing more on creative writing these days (wrote the Silicon Valley spec script and the Theranos parody that have come up on HN a few times.) Aphantasia was a pretty weird discovery for me given this new focus.
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#3> If I tell you to imagine a beach, you can picture the golden sand and turquoise waves.
Yes, with great detail.
> If I ask for a red triangle, your mind gets to drawing.
Yup (and it's spinning for some reason!)
> And mom’s face? Of course.
Not at all!
I've always been intrigued about this. I have a very rich "mind's eye", but always struggle with drawing faces in my mind.
My experience with imagining faces: I get the overall head shape, hair... everything, but the features are blurry, wobbly, and kind of switch nonstop, like my imagined faces were made of constantly changing cutouts of a multitude of faces. It's disorienting.
I (think I) don't have any trouble recognizing people's faces. Sometimes I even remember strangers who I come across occasionally on my city... But I still struggle remembering/imagining the most familiar people around me.
Am I alone in this?
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#4I'm the author of this post, happy to answer any questions. About me: I was formerly a director of product at FB and a founder of Firefox. My YC startup became FB's first acquisition. I'm focusing more on creative writing these days (wrote the Silicon Valley spec script and the Theranos parody that have come up on HN a few times.) Aphantasia was a pretty weird discovery for me given this new focus.
I think this post from 2009 is where I learned that there's a large variation in people's ability to form mental imagery:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/
Maybe you'd find it interesting, if you haven't read it already.
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#5I'm the author of this post, happy to answer any questions. About me: I was formerly a director of product at FB and a founder of Firefox. My YC startup became FB's first acquisition. I'm focusing more on creative writing these days (wrote the Silicon Valley spec script and the Theranos parody that have come up on HN a few times.) Aphantasia was a pretty weird discovery for me given this new focus.
The question that kept coming to mind as I read this was how you compare different things?
For example, something as simple as: What is more blue? The sky or a lake?
Or, on a practical note, if you are designing software, do you have a good sense of color theory, to be able to select colors that will look good together, or do you have to put it on screen and do some trial and error?
Also, your concept of the "milk voice" was very alien to me. I don't think like that. My inner voice is my own voice, with full emotion and inflection.
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#6> If I tell you to imagine a beach, you can picture the golden sand and turquoise waves. Yes, with great detail. > If I ask for a red triangle, your mind gets to drawing. Yup (and it's spinning for some reason!) > And mom’s face? Of course. Not at all! I've always been intrigued about this. I have a very rich "mind's eye", but always struggle with drawing faces in my mind. My experience with imagining faces: I get th…
No, I'm the same. I can recall a particular picture I've seen of someone's face, but I find it difficult to imagine someone's face without that cue.
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#7I'm the author of this post, happy to answer any questions. About me: I was formerly a director of product at FB and a founder of Firefox. My YC startup became FB's first acquisition. I'm focusing more on creative writing these days (wrote the Silicon Valley spec script and the Theranos parody that have come up on HN a few times.) Aphantasia was a pretty weird discovery for me given this new focus.
The question that kept coming to mind as I read this was how you compare different things? For example, something as simple as: What is more blue? The sky or a lake? Or, on a practical note, if you are designing software, do you have a good sense of color theory, to be able to select colors that will look good together, or do you have to put it on screen and do some trial and error? Also, your concept of the "milk vo…
I think I've stored basic information as to color degree, like "X is very dark blue" and "Y is light blue." I'd have to actually see the objects to settle a close contest.
Trial and error for matching colors.
Thanks for the insight on the "milk voice." You'd think by now I'd learn not to assume anything. I thought the "neutral inner voice" was universal.
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#8> If I tell you to imagine a beach, you can picture the golden sand and turquoise waves. Yes, with great detail. > If I ask for a red triangle, your mind gets to drawing. Yup (and it's spinning for some reason!) > And mom’s face? Of course. Not at all! I've always been intrigued about this. I have a very rich "mind's eye", but always struggle with drawing faces in my mind. My experience with imagining faces: I get th…
I can definitely relate! Faces and text just blur and morph in strange ways but all other characteristics are fine. I've always assumed (like Blake in the article) this was normal!
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#9And now I wonder what someone with aphantasia would see using psychedelic drugs, or while meditating... Still nothing ? Could that help ?
Re: Aphantasia: How It Feels to Be Blind in Your Mind
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question that kept coming to mind as I read this was how you compare different things? For example, something as simple as: What is more blue? The sky or a lake? Or, on a practical note, if you are designing software, do you have a good sense of color theory, to be able to select colors that will look good together, or do you have to put it on screen and do some trial and error? Also, your concept of the "milk vo…
I think I've stored basic information as to color degree, like "X is very dark blue" and "Y is light blue." I'd have to actually see the objects to settle a close contest. Trial and error for matching colors. Thanks for the insight on the "milk voice." You'd think by now I'd learn not to assume anything. I thought the "neutral inner voice" was universal.
> I thought the "neutral inner voice" was universal.
For me, most of the time, I don't have any kind of inner voice. I don't usually think in words; thinking is more like combining abstract symbols/feelings/concepts in a way that's more immediate and less linear than language.