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Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

thesignalist.io

51–60 of 169 posts

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I often construct full sentences in my head I've only ever heard that associated with schizophrenia, but I don't even know if that's true or not.

What? It's never occurred to me that this isn't entirely normal, I've done it all my life. I thought people without an inner monologue were the unusual ones.

I'm not wading into the schizophrenia part, but inner monologue doesn't necessarily imply constructing a fully formed sentence you then repeat to yourself.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I often construct full sentences in my head I've only ever heard that associated with schizophrenia, but I don't even know if that's true or not.

What? It's never occurred to me that this isn't entirely normal, I've done it all my life. I thought people without an inner monologue were the unusual ones.

I think there is a difference between having an inner monologue, and imagining a conversation with another person in your head.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#53
post #20

I don't think the out loud or someone listening / reacting matters at all here. Suspect it's entirely this: >The thought that was comfortable as a vague impression has to become a sentence, and sentences have structure. It's not unlike what people like PG say about writing improving thinking...it's the being forced to go from fuzzy directional notions to something you can put on paper in that will stand up to critiqu…

One can't think aloud.

It's illogical to use one word when another is more concise and succinct like talking and speaking in this case.

Some words are self-explanatory like thinking.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#55
post #23
post #3

In 2017 LLMs weren't powerful enough to generate working code on their own, but my goal was to at least create a chatbot that could help you rubber-duck-debug your way to a solution. Unfortunately the tech wasn't quite strong enough for that, and not enough engineers even knew what rubber-duck-debugging was. RIP Duckly. Trying to train an LLM on two 1080ti's on the StackOverflow corpus in my living room was a vibe th…

perhaps it is time to resurrect Duckly queue Frankenstein music and thunder in background

It's AIive!

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#56
post #20

I don't think the out loud or someone listening / reacting matters at all here. Suspect it's entirely this: >The thought that was comfortable as a vague impression has to become a sentence, and sentences have structure. It's not unlike what people like PG say about writing improving thinking...it's the being forced to go from fuzzy directional notions to something you can put on paper in that will stand up to critiqu…

One can't think aloud. It's illogical to use one word when another is more concise and succinct like talking and speaking in this case. Some words are self-explanatory like thinking.

The post you're replying to didn't say that, but regardless, I would say 'thinking aloud' is a pretty good descriptor for the word-by-word narration kind of thinking where you sort of both say and hear it in your head. I have heard that some people who who experience 'inner monologue' experience their thoughts nearly exclusively like this.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#57
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the out loud or someone listening / reacting matters at all here. Suspect it's entirely this: >The thought that was comfortable as a vague impression has to become a sentence, and sentences have structure. I often construct full sentences in my head. And have conversations with my mental model of some other person. In full sentences

> I often construct full sentences in my head I've only ever heard that associated with schizophrenia, but I don't even know if that's true or not.

It might be correlated with neurodivergence. But it’s also just correlated with high verbal ability in general, presumably. I find it quite natural to think in complete structured sentences, and it’s often perplexed me why other people seem to find this concept so alien. And no I’m not schizophrenic.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#58
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the out loud or someone listening / reacting matters at all here. Suspect it's entirely this: >The thought that was comfortable as a vague impression has to become a sentence, and sentences have structure. I often construct full sentences in my head. And have conversations with my mental model of some other person. In full sentences

> I often construct full sentences in my head I've only ever heard that associated with schizophrenia, but I don't even know if that's true or not.

I have done this for my entire life (no diagnosis) ... but I also find it easy to write stories and books.

Your comment made me pause in the "wait, other people don't do that?" way.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#59
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? It's never occurred to me that this isn't entirely normal, I've done it all my life. I thought people without an inner monologue were the unusual ones.

I think there is a difference between having an inner monologue, and imagining a conversation with another person in your head.

Created a throwaway for this, but is this not what people do?

Not so much imagining a conversation in your head, but playing through a conversation with "the other side" of the coin (be it an idea, plan, problem, solution etc) which are both yourself if that makes sense.

Is this not what the inner monologue to yourself is? Your inner is conversing with your outer monologue. Hard to explain.

Would consider myself to be both physically and mentally stable, no conditions etc.

Re: Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone

#60
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a difference between having an inner monologue, and imagining a conversation with another person in your head.

Created a throwaway for this, but is this not what people do? Not so much imagining a conversation in your head, but playing through a conversation with "the other side" of the coin (be it an idea, plan, problem, solution etc) which are both yourself if that makes sense. Is this not what the inner monologue to yourself is? Your inner is conversing with your outer monologue. Hard to explain. Would consider myself to b…

I can only speak for myself... but my inner monologue is just a runaway train of thoughts that I vocalize in my head as I work through them. There is no other person in there, abstract or otherwise. Have you ever seen the Death Note anime? Similar to that.
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