Not everyone has an internal monologue • Hacker News Board

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#241

Post by pazimzadeh » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:12 PM UTC

_y5hn wrote: post #236

LordFast wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it a bad thing for your brain to be running DFS all the time? Is it a wasteful use of time? Does it cause behavioral issues? Is it a personal choice? Or...?

When you think less you may be open to more possibilities, be more spontaneous and even have some childlike fun. However, others can be taken aback and even suspect ulterior motives, until you harmonize better with others.

I am surprised that you said others can suspect ulterior motives, because that started happening to me but I can't figure out what the connection is. Can you expand on that?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#242

Post by gherkinnn » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:13 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!

How does, erm, arousal work with no inner image?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#243

Post by mike_ivanov » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:13 PM UTC

rc_hadoken wrote: post #137

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #116

Had a writer say "We think in words. Without language, we could not form thoughts". Which is instantly nonsense. I can think of a blue elephant, then the Gettysburg Address. If I'm asked "What did you think of first?" I'd say "a blue elephant". So where was that blue elephant in the mean time? Still in my mind, still a thought. Just not at the surface, not words. I look at code projects by scrolling through all the s…

I'm confused -- are you saying the writer is wrong because of your anecdotal process for coding? As someone who writes I would have a very hard time imagining writing without the ability to have a mental monologue. I do know Alan Moore said in an interview that he would talk to himself in the mirror. Maybe he's an instance of a writer who doesn't think in words. I would not think of a blue elephant as the word 'blue…

Not the OP, but I too think that that writer is wrong because he/she assumes too much.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#244

Post by wbhart » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

I have an inner monologue, but I wouldn't say I was like "hearing" anything. For me it feels a bit more like the muscle movements in my larynx are played out as though I was going to speak the words. I can imagine a voice speaking at the same time if I want, but that's not how it is normally.

I tried reading at the same time as thinking of different words. I can certainly read the words whilst thinking of different ones, but I can't understand what I read very well. Probably it could be done with practice.

However, if I have planned a sentence that I want to type, I can type it whilst listening to someone else or thinking about something else. It's slightly more error prone though.

I can certainly imagine pictures in my mind without any monologue running at all. But this also isn't my normal mode of thinking. It's not helpful because I don't normally associate abstract concepts with pictures, but with words and symbols and abstract memories of things that worked in similar situations before.

I believe I can recall all my senses or imagine them in my head. I don't seem to dream in words though, but in pictures, mostly. I'm also a much more visually stimulated person than an auditorially stimulated one.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#245

Post by findthewords » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

natechols wrote: post #118

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…

It took me until my mid-20s before I realized that not everyone thought this way.

I have this "condition". I didn't know it was unusual. I was on propecia (hairloss) medication for awhile, and it took the internal monologue away. I'm now off of it because life was dull and lonely without an active imagination. How curious that testosterone derivative hormones could alter brain activity.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#246

Post by nabla9 » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

drdeca wrote: post #239

nabla9 wrote: post #216

The classic: Thinking the Way Animals Do: Unique insights from a person with a singular understanding. By Temple Grandin, Ph.D. https://www.grandin.com/references/thinking.animals.html >I have no language-based thoughts at all. My thoughts are in pictures, like videotapes in my mind. When I recall something from my memory, I see only pictures. I used to think that everybody thought this way until I started talking to…

Does it count as “verbal thinking” if, when doing some math, I’m thinking of a sequence (or structure of some kind) of characters, but don’t have a distinct subvocalization for all the characters? Like, if there are 3 different F symbols that refer to different things, I’ll be thinking of a way to manipulate these symbols, and I will subvocalize each f symbol as “eff”, but will have the specific symbol in mind. Like,…

At least for me what you describe is visual symbol processing. I see symbols and rearrange and process them visually in my mind. Same for programming.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#247

Post by ASalazarMX » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #119

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…

On the other hand, this probably allows you to put yourself in someone else's shoes more easily.

It also leads to overthinking. You could simulate several long conversations based on wrong assumptions, resulting in wrong conclusions and probably some anxiety.

It also makes it harder to deal with you because only you can react based on those long analyses, everybody else has to react based on your actions.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#248

Post by _y5hn » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

ASalazarMX wrote: post #231

thrwaway69 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now, I am super self conscious of the otherwise ignored voice which reads everything I type and see. It is much sexier though than irl. I wonder why is that ? On the other hand, I can speak much faster yay. Why? Is your voice reading this comment too? Maybe. Do you feel like you are conversing with an oddly being? Maybe. I am alive. Where is my mind reading tech?

> It is much sexier though than irl. I wonder why is that? Well, now it is. Thank you (and me I guess for being so susceptible).

Now your read this sentence in Darth Vader voice. Not the first time though.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#249

Post by levythe » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #208

vojta_letal wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I remember reading these are called parasitic(?) thoughts, uncontrollable and random thoughts, sometimes leading to more complex reasoning but ultimately almost on autopilot ; like the mind is just suggesting many different things at once and you just happen to notice one of those random thinking when it reaches the surface of your consciousness. I belive it also has to do with an anxious mind but I have nothing to b…

Since you seem to have doubt to the name you were fishing for, I've heard the term intrusive thoughts.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#250

Post by atemerev » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 10:17 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…

I also have ADHD, but my thoughts (multiple and distracted they are) are “flashes”, not a fully dubbed voiceovers. They would be much slower if they would need to be “pronounced” mentally.