Not everyone has an internal monologue • Hacker News Board

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#181

Post by friendlybus » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #65

I dream up movies and songs and all sorts of rich fantasies in my head, and I do this constantly. As a consequence of this, I never get bored as I've got an incredible imagination to lean on. I think about movies I want to make, startups I want to create, the change I want to put into the world. New songs on my commute, goals I want to accomplish, what I could do with time travel. I'm always working on the structures…

I had the same thing. The more anchored it became to reality through supportive others and responsibility and commitment the quieter it became. Writing out my ideas and then really thoroughly and deeply exploring one that means something to gave a weight to bear on my psyche that quietened the others.

Ze Frank has a good video on this where he quotes Jung's work. https://youtu.be/u2cMjeSvZSs?t=184 Artists say life begins when you leave your comfort zone, in regards to making good art.

I find it still an important driver in life to follow that burst of ideas. The only way for me to raise up an idea structure or skill is to follow that buzz upwards. My capacity to imagine is jammed packed with meaningful content now and it grows a weight of it's own.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#182

Post by zelly » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

burnte wrote: post #155

zelly wrote: post #128

The "inner dialogue" is called the default mode network in neuroscience. It doesn't have to be thinking in "words" necessarily; you could also skip the words and still be thinking in a resting state. It serves the purpose of ruminating, reflecting on memories, doing introspection. Paradoxically, your brain actually consumes more calories doing this type of resting thinking than you do in task-oriented thought, like w…

> I think it's maladaptive. You are better off having no default mode network activity. > Of course it's another thing entirely if you're too stupid to have an inner dialogue, verbal or not, but I feel like even non-human animals are capable of an inner dialogue. It doesn't add anything useful. With all due respect, I disagree completely . I think it's incredibly helpful to be able to talk to yourself and examine ide…

That's not what I'm saying.

Not having the ability to "talk" to yourself (either in words or in the abstractions that underlie the words) is a different issue. That is a serious handicap.

What I'm criticizing is having this going on all the time--constantly ruminating at rest except when attention is focused on some high-bandwidth task.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#183

Post by Insanity » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

oxplot wrote: post #149

Relevant bit from Feynman talking about how he found that a simple act of counting in one's head can be different and all its implications. I suggest watching the other videos from the same interview. Lots of fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y

Also described in "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!", which I absolutely recommend reading.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#184

Post by qznc » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:33 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #113

This is how I felt when I found out I have Aphantasia I was like WTF? All these people can make pictures in their head? This is not fair!

What do you associate with "Iron Man"?

For mental-picture people images from the movies or the comics pop up. Via the movies "Captain America" is closely associated for example. The method of loci [0] exploits this somewhat.

Do you rather associate sounds, music, smells instead? Is it purely abstract?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#185

Post by klondike_klive » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

air7 wrote: post #63

Not only that but my inner voice can do impressions: I can have "it" do accents or imitate specific people whose voice I know well. Also sometimes (albeit rarely) a thought might actually make me smile or even laugh out loud a little out of surprise with no external input so to speak. Quite weird, come to think of it... do others do this too?

Yes. A lot of my job includes doing voices and impressions, replicating sounds. I've always been a mimic and had a curiosity about sound. So I guess when I'm thinking about an accent or particular voice I'll be going over knotty bits in my mind, trying to nail how to attack a sound with the musculature of the mouth and throat.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#186

Post by friendlybus » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

zelly wrote: post #152

echelon wrote: post #65

I dream up movies and songs and all sorts of rich fantasies in my head, and I do this constantly. As a consequence of this, I never get bored as I've got an incredible imagination to lean on. I think about movies I want to make, startups I want to create, the change I want to put into the world. New songs on my commute, goals I want to accomplish, what I could do with time travel. I'm always working on the structures…

This isn't healthy. You should go on a meditation retreat. Or drop acid. This is what Buddhist monks call the monkey mind syndrome.

It's very healthy. This buzz of ideas and fantasy is where new forms and structures come from. It needs to be applied, not medicated.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#187

Post by vojta_letal » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

n00b123 wrote: post #164

Interesting topic (and comments). 1. I do inner monologue. And I have to say, sometimes I get scared from what I "hear". I don't mean sometjing like "I hear voices telling me to kill everyone", but nasty, brutally cynical, sometimes outright violent thoughts. They feel alien to me, because on general level I consider myself "the good guy", but one the other hand they don't feel like someone else whispering me evil th…

Sometimes I have a "how awful would it be to do XY" moments. Usually something brutal. But it always makes me pay even more attention to not doing that very thing even accidentally because I definitely do not want to break stuff or hurt someone. Yet it makes me a bit nervous. What if I actually decided to do that? Fortunately it never happens when I'm under influence. Do I need help?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#188

Post by james-skemp » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:35 PM UTC

40acres wrote: post #105

Unfathomable to me. My mind is constantly racing, playing out different conversations, interviewing myself in a variety of roles to navigate my thoughts on things (one day I'm the president of the US talking about foreign policy, another day I'm a big tech CEO navigating the diversity questions). I constantly have something in my ears to tune myself out, podcasts or music. After being diagnosed w/ ADHD I realize I'm…

Daydreaming?

I have internal monologues, talking to myself as I write this, and when I was younger I'd play out stories in my head. Still do it sometimes when I'm bored or stressed, or particularly upset about something.

Example of a story: something very much like The Watchmen graphic novel, before I had read it (movie and show didn't exist, or were even talked about.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#189

Post by skinkestek » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

40acres wrote: post #105

Unfathomable to me. My mind is constantly racing, playing out different conversations, interviewing myself in a variety of roles to navigate my thoughts on things (one day I'm the president of the US talking about foreign policy, another day I'm a big tech CEO navigating the diversity questions). I constantly have something in my ears to tune myself out, podcasts or music. After being diagnosed w/ ADHD I realize I'm…

With me it is often less words and more action movies: getting innocent people out of harms way, looking for cover, looking for anyone like minded who might be able to help block the doors and try to ambush an attacker together with me. Calling the police, whispering the address etc etc.

Not sure if it would work if anything happens, but this is one of the thing my mind keeps itself busy with as I walk through the city. And no, I'm formally a trained soldier, but I don't have much training in this so it is just my bored mind going crazy with ideas.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#190

Post by kordlessagain » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

ghego1 wrote: post #165

friendlybus wrote: post #141

I had an internal monologue in my youth. Constantly searching for the next witticism in my mind before I said it and putting thought into structuring my words carefully for school. I later spent some time alone and developed a simulation of other people I could ask and have conversations with in my head. Then I went to therapy and they told me to stop doing that, so I did. I also worked with people who barely speak e…

Why did they tell you to stop doing that? What's wrong with it?

If one builds an internal reality of mind that has others "speaking" in it, as if one has seen them do it, one is allowing one to remove their choice...at least internally. If one repeated what you saw to others, then that could also be spreading the behavior to others, thus removing the choice from target. Shame works this way, for example.