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The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

nytimes.com

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Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#61

Post by aphextron »

BadassFractal wrote: post #47

I remember Sam Harris pointing out in his book on consciousness and meditation just how absurd it is that we regularly have conversations with ourselves. "Hmm, I wonder where I left the keys, they must be on the kitchen table, nope, man I'm going to be late to work again..". Who is the interlocutor? Does the thing we're talking to already not have all of the information the speaker has? If we saw someone have this co…

This is not Sam's unique philosophy. What he was explaining here is the underpinnings of all Zen Buddhism. Coming to terms with the fact that duality of the mind is an illusion.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#62

Post by terheyden »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #59
hliyan wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this with writing. Even if the problem has 3 points, I write down a list on the whiteboard. Even if the part of the system I'm concerned about has two components, I draw two boxes with a connecting line. Then I stare at the board. It's surprising how effective this can be. Edit: I suspect Sherlock Holmes was the first fictional character to employ rubber-ducking (albeit with Watson as the duck). Greg House would…

House is Sherlock Holmes.

Yep, House -> Holmes; Wilson -> Watson.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#63

Post by goblin89 »

wapz wrote: post #60
redcap wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my Japanese teachers really stressed reading out loud as good practice - you practice reading the piece, you practice saying the words, and you get some listening practice too. One nice big feedback loop!

I've studied Japanese for a long time (and work in Japanese only now) and if you want to work on pronunciation I learned to "shadow" in my Japanese class. You watch any tv show and you repeat exactly what they say right after to get the intonation down. It's weird at first but it's super effective due to the difficulty of Japanese's hidden intonations. One other thing we learned was to talk real loud with either a hi…

Working in Japanese only means you’re located in Japan? What’s your line of work? Just curiosity.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#64

Post by JCharante »

djsumdog wrote: post #53

I talk to myself all the time, especially when hiking or out for a walk. This can get embarrassing when you run into another person around a turn. If you are with your friend and talking, well you're just talking to your friend. When it's just you .. that must be a crazy person (unless you've got a flashing bluetooth headset or a phone in your hand I guess). I usually get real silent and then slowly pick back up as I…

I think more people than you think partake in these activities, but unlike you are even shyer about it.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#66

Post by mowenz »

gregmac wrote: post #5

This made me think of rubber duck problem solving [1][2], though it didn't mention it specifically. Talking through a problem out loud forces you to structure your thoughts in a logical way, and sometimes doing that you'll realize an obvious connection or step you missed. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging [2] http://hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com/148664.html

Anyone's workplace promote rubber duck debugging?

It seems to have a lot of positive press, and it works for me--though I'm cautious of talking to myself at work before knowing if it would come across negatively.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#67

Post by chrismealy »

jpindar wrote: post #56
BadassFractal wrote: post #47

I remember Sam Harris pointing out in his book on consciousness and meditation just how absurd it is that we regularly have conversations with ourselves. "Hmm, I wonder where I left the keys, they must be on the kitchen table, nope, man I'm going to be late to work again..". Who is the interlocutor? Does the thing we're talking to already not have all of the information the speaker has? If we saw someone have this co…

There are many times when I don't have an internal monologue. I can't imagine what it would be like to have one all the time.

It's terrible.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#68

Post by BurningFrog »

__jal wrote: post #7
gregmac wrote: post #5

This made me think of rubber duck problem solving [1][2], though it didn't mention it specifically. Talking through a problem out loud forces you to structure your thoughts in a logical way, and sometimes doing that you'll realize an obvious connection or step you missed. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging [2] http://hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com/148664.html

For me, it isn't even vocalizing - I discovered that forcing things into words helps me troubleshoot after noticing that I solved my own problems after giving up and composing an email to someone to ask for help. The act of describing the problem in written form allowed me to see what I was missing. Since noticing that, I started doing it fairly, and not just with programming. At some point, I realized I was keeping…

This might be splitting hairs, but I think hearing/reading my own question is more important than the act of writing down the problem.

I theorize that words you hear/read pass through some part of the brain specialized in finding answers, that is not engaged during regular problem solving.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#69

Post by bhrgunatha »

__jal wrote: post #7
gregmac wrote: post #5

This made me think of rubber duck problem solving [1][2], though it didn't mention it specifically. Talking through a problem out loud forces you to structure your thoughts in a logical way, and sometimes doing that you'll realize an obvious connection or step you missed. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging [2] http://hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com/148664.html

For me, it isn't even vocalizing - I discovered that forcing things into words helps me troubleshoot after noticing that I solved my own problems after giving up and composing an email to someone to ask for help. The act of describing the problem in written form allowed me to see what I was missing. Since noticing that, I started doing it fairly, and not just with programming. At some point, I realized I was keeping…

Writing things down - or sketching or using mind-maps (not software but actually drawing your own manually) - seems to have an amazing effect on the brain.

We haven't been writing long (in evolutionary terms) so I wonder why that is?

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#70

Post by tambourine_man »

I ask my Mac to read stuff I wrote back to me out loud to help me catch errors.

Oftentimes the reading "voice in my head" is so biased already that I overlook mistakes or inelegant constructions.

For example, I tend to auto fill prepositions that aren't actually there while reading, specially in a partially rewritten sentence.

When hearing someone else speak, however, the error is evident.

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