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I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

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Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#81

Post by invalidOrTaken »

weberc2 wrote: post #27
exrook wrote: post #3

It's interesting to compare this to the idea of the brain having two systems of cognition: a "System 1" process that is automatic and quick to respond, relying on memorized behaviors; and a "System 2" process that is more methodical, logical, and deliberate, but far slower to react. The author's point being that we should try harder to use our System 2 thought process at the expense of quick turnaround from the Syste…

I relate to the author of the original article in that I'm a slow thinker. I really envy people who can vocalize intelligent, confident decisions or opinions on the spot. I don't like feeling stupid because I can't articulate moderately complex thoughts on the spot. It feels like I don't think in words anymore, but rather in something like abstract math (not like a savant, mind you), and translating back to words acc…

I am a fast thinker.

It's good for situations where the bottleneck is sheer processing speed---math problems on standardized tests, for instance---but many problems in the real world have bottlenecks of perspective, or information. I'd have been a good medical student, but probably a terrible doctor.

I've hammered a lot of screws in my time.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#82

Post by imhoguy »

robryan wrote: post #44
malux85 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a literal inquiry, it’s the verbal equivalent of a TCP handshake. It’s protocol negotiation, volume adjustment, and preparation for transmission.

It depends, as a conversation starter it is probably okay. As an entire conversation it is almost entirely pointless, basically 2 people acknowledging that the other still exists.

ICMP then

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#83

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Swizec wrote: post #18
buchanae wrote: post #12

I'm the same way! I have to train myself not to think when people give a casual "hey, how are you?". The book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts" has an interesting message about how introverts struggle to fit into an image of society where one must be a quick-witted extrovert in order to be successful and powerful. I think it's the same for fast vs slow thinkers. It's important to know your a slow thinker, and accept i…

You would be surprised how often people don't even notice if you respond to "hey, how are you", with "hi". But, really, the script you're meant to follow goes like this: Hey how are you? Hey, good, how about you? Pretty good Then, if the conversation is meant to continue, which it most often is not, one of you says "So ... what's up in your life?" or "So ... how's that thing you're working on going?" or some other mo…

> You would be surprised how often people don't even notice if you respond to "hey, how are you", with "hi".

It's not that they don't notice, it's that "How are you" can be read as either a question or a greeting in modern English.

It's even more pronounced with other phrases. If you're introduced to three people and they respond "Hi", "Hello", "What's up?", it's understood that they're all pretty much saying the same thing.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#84

Post by PhasmaFelis »

pnsr wrote: post #23
toomanybeersies wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a standard greeting. Personally, I find it weird if people actually tell me how they're going when I ask them. It's even more peculiar/banal in French, where the conversation goes: Salut, ça va? Ça va, et toi? Ça va. "Ça va" translates to "it is". So in essence, it's a completely meaningless exchange.

"Ça va." translates "It's going well", not "it is". Similarly, "Ça va?" translates to "Is it going well?". It's as meaningless an exchange as most greetings (the only meaning being to actually acknowledge and greet the person), but it does mean something literally, and the exchange is technically more complete than when answering "How are you?" with "Hi". That being said, you'll see someone answering "Salut, ça va?"…

Seems like you could translate the spirit of that into English pretty reasonably.

"Hey, doing well?" "Doing well, and you?" "Doing well."

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#85

Post by crehn »

tomahunt wrote: post #26

A medical doctor friend of mine pointed out that thinking slow was fine, except in an emergency or indeed any time--limited situation where the rate of response needs to be above some threshold. Think: baraster responding to opponent, a and e doctor, board-room negotiation etc.

Or when fixing a large production issue at 4:30 AM when you're the only one awake.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#86

Post by daveFNbuck »

remarkEon wrote: post #8
glangdale wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also relevant: the French have a great phrase for this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier

Ha. Remembering that one. Is there something about the French language that lends itself more easily to great wit and very usable idioms?

There's nothing language-specific about that idiom. In English, it's staircase wit. It should work in most languages as long as you have the story to go with it.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#87

Post by abhishekjha »

krasin wrote: post #80
abhishekjha wrote: post #77

Does this have any thing to do with me being extremely awful/slow at competitive programming? I tried a few online sites like codeforces, hackerrank, codechef and after a few easy problems, I ended up getting stuck for forever. I had to often look for the solution which was more than often a trick that I hadn't come across and my existing knowledge base failed to take me there. Is there any way to improve this? To be…

I am a slow thinker, but had been moderately successful in competitive programming during high school days. The trick is to code a lot outside of the competitions and know all these tricks, as well as to have common snippets of code in your fingertips. I still find that experience quite useful in my day-to-day programming.

I would like to know more about this. Is there a proper book(s)/source(s) that I should follow? I never came across segment trees in my Data Structures class and I have rarely found the need to code one up in my job yet the screening process involved coding a question using segment trees. How do people get to know about these?

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#88

Post by copperx »

Pimpus wrote: post #59
westoncb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a key aspect to the situation though is that you won't get faster by trying to get faster. Of all places, I learned this while working in a grocery store, but have since verified the phenomenon in other domains (for example, reading; and it also just makes psychological sense). I had been stocking groceries for about a month when I had an interesting conversation with two senior employees (20 or 30 years a pi…

Well, I've gotten a lot sharper over the past year. And comparing myself to five years ago, the difference is night and day. Hmm, I see I got downvoted. Whatever.

How did you get sharper?

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#89

Post by ozzmotik »

taeric wrote: post #62
mchahn wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I relate to the author of the original article in that I'm a slow thinker. I was going to say something like this until I saw everyone else saying the same thing. This leads to my theory, and some facts. The geek population has a high percentage of mild autistics. I firmly believe my lack of social skills, and slow thinking, is related to a mild amount of autism. I can't play any games involving fast thinking but I…

I cheated and looked up some of the facets of that question. As someone that has aphantasia, I'm curious where you are taking that question. I confess my original answer was to remember that old kids song where you make a steeple with your hands and then flip them to see the people. I then thought that I don't actually know what distinguishes a steeple from a plain roof.

oh hey you suffer from the whole aphantasia thing too? i think that really made the process of answering what a church steeple is a bit more difficult; i was unable to actually construct the perception of a church from the past, though that isn't just due to the aphantasia but also the rarity with which I even am around a church. but that being said when thinking about the church steeple, my mind more represented it as an attribute of the architecture of the church, one that contextually refers to the ceiling as it were. and then after comprehending that my mind constructed the experience of processing some abstract church holistically and relating the steeple as a pattern of data within the data set of the church as a whole

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#90

Post by grosjona »

I think fast when it comes to language and logic but my mathematical thinking is very slow.

In math exams at university, I usually only managed to get about half way through most exam papers. Amazingly, I still managed to pass most math courses. I knew most of the answers but it took me so long to solve them that I could never finish the whole paper.

I had to really know the stuff just to get an average grade.

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