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.
The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
131–140 of 149 posts
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#132Japanese train drivers have a system that's called Pointing and Calling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling-ja... Visual and audio feedback is great for your brain. For me, I often need to make a 200mL bottle for my child, and each scoop of powder makes only 20mL - meaning that I need to put 10 scoops in. Especially when I have a crying baby it'…
I am taking pilot's lessons right now, and this is pretty essential to the process. Talking through a maneuver or procedure, combined with checklists, is very core to what I have so far seen as aviation culture.
As a software veteran I had two observations:
1. A good sysadmin or devops professional will be doing this as they do any operations on a production system.
2. The pilot's checklists, gauges and procedures are like the proto-microcontroller. Before auto-pilot and computerized systems, early pilots had to manage a complex system as it came to life. To see this in action, just watch a youtube video of a pilot starting up an old WW2 plane like a mustang, and imaging writing the arduino flow control for it..
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#133A perspective from the political world: When I arrived as a junior staffer on Capitol Hill, I noticed the lower you were on the totem pole, the more you walked with your head held up. The more seniority you gained, the more you walked with your head down, to avoid talking to other people. Chiefs of Staff would walk quickly, looking at the floor. Interns and Staff Assistants walked proudly with their heads held high.…
Walking with a purpose will get you all kinds of places without well enforced security procedures in place.
Just make sure to dress the part.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#134A perspective from the political world: When I arrived as a junior staffer on Capitol Hill, I noticed the lower you were on the totem pole, the more you walked with your head held up. The more seniority you gained, the more you walked with your head down, to avoid talking to other people. Chiefs of Staff would walk quickly, looking at the floor. Interns and Staff Assistants walked proudly with their heads held high.…
Walking with a purpose will get you all kinds of places without well enforced security procedures in place.
My theory is that Capitol Police are loath to stop someone out of fear it might be some 25 year old Chief of Staff; most of the people who make the laws of this country tend to be between the ages of 22 and 30.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#135This 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
I have experienced this by starting to write a Stack Overflow question.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#136I grew up an only child and so in absence of anyone else, I learned to talk to myself instead. I naturally have a busy mind and over the years I've found that getting a thought out of my head is the quickest way to get it out of the way. I've had anxiety issues over the years. One day I was feeling a bit anxious and suddenly the idea came over me to just try to shut off my inner voice - completely. I focused on tryin…
How did you shut off your inner voice? I went on a multi-day, complete-silence (no talking, reading, etc.) retreat to meditate and found I wasn't much closer to shutting off the internal voice or flood of random thoughts.
It's primarily a question of attachment. Those who are "best" at meditating have the capacity to observe without getting caught up in the thought stream.
I think it boils down to karma, some people come into this life completely ready to take the inward journey; others, not so ready, need to break a mountain of karmic rocks before the mind begins to truly settle.
Having sat a number of retreats when I was younger (as in over a hundred days across various traditions) it's pretty clear that I was in the breaking rocks phase. Of course, I'm still in the breaking rocks phase (or even regressed to pre-breaking rocks) as I gave up formal meditation practice several years ago.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or if you put it on a kitchen scale...
especially since companies are notorious for making the scoops bigger than expected so you go through product quicker.
Source? I have not heard of this. Our nurse emphasized that while a child is on formula, that's really all they consume for both nutrition and hydration, so it needs to be balanced per manufacturer guidelines. They don't have a way to signal "I thirsty" or "My tiny stomach is full of watery stuff but my blood sugar is still low". Their digestive and urinary systems are pretty amazing, but habitually using too much or too little (wrong scoop, wrong ratio, packing it dense) can be unhealthy.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#138Another benefit of talking to oneself is to find out who's listening in on your computer/phone microphone, or bugs in the apartment. By saying different things to oneself in different locations, one can hone in which locations are being surveilled. I discovered when I lived in Melbourne Australia and again in China that there's plenty of people around with nothing better to do with their time.
How did you find out you were being surveilled?
The "useless idiots" involved in surveillance usually have a psychological need to let on they're part of the action, or sometimes the puppeteers want you to know you're being watched.
By the way, I didn't overlook adding any details in my first comment. By "Australia and China", I meant both "democracies" and "dictatorships" are as guilty as each other.
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#139Even when I'm not actually speaking out loud, I find that my thoughts often act very similarly: I'm usually having a conversation with myself. And I'll try to crack myself up, or reference movie quotes, or break into a song or dramatic monologue. (Anyone who's upvoting this, does that mean I'm not alone or I'm insane?)
You are not alone. It's much easier to be your uncool self, when you're only talking to yourself. In fact, when I was younger, I use to sometimes talk to myself like I was monologuing to an unseen audience, like characters always seem to do on kids shows[1]. [1]( http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AsideComment )
"uncool self"
I take offense to that! But actually I'm glad to hear that :)
Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I don't buy the whole "if you hear it you'll see it" thing for coding - unless you're used to saying things you're working on I guess, but I'm not. I can see the extra focus it could bring because you're spending more effort in vocalizing your thoughts and it's going trough different systems as well (physically hearing yourself speak). I've tried both and you can talk yourself trough the problem inside of your head s…
Not everyone is the same :)