Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 149 posts

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#101

Post by bryanrasmussen »

wjdp wrote: post #18
__jal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it isn't even vocalizing - I discovered that forcing things into words helps me troubleshoot after noticing that I solved my own problems after giving up and composing an email to someone to ask for help. The act of describing the problem in written form allowed me to see what I was missing. Since noticing that, I started doing it fairly, and not just with programming. At some point, I realized I was keeping…

When writing SO questions I tend to only press the submit button 5–10% of the time before realising my error (typically something mundane). The act of putting the problem into words, along with writing up a good background of the problem (as you should for a good question) often forces an objective viewpoint/reevaluation of the problem.

On the other hand in the past year especially my experience has been I am asking something for which the documentation is very bad, I don't know enough about the particular problem area I am trying to solve to make a concise description with code examples that nearly work but don't, and as a consequence I just drop it and say it's not worth asking here because nobody will help you understand the problem area unless you understand it really well. Too bad SO has replaced user groups in so many cases.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#104

Post by bitexploder »

suneilp wrote: post #50
alistproducer2 wrote: post #21

I 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…

When I started meditating more often, I kept getting distracted by miscellaneous thoughts. At first I fought it to get back to the "quiet mind" but that was frustrating. And I would angrily judge myself for the distraction. I got tired of beating myself up and then I recognized that these distractions were the short and long term problems such as conflicts at work within the last few days, or deep seated trauma, like…

That is sort of the Zen of meditating, achieving quiet while the brain is still making noise. I have seen it put like this -- the brain and its inner dialogue is a raging river, swim against it and you will drown. Stop resisting, float along the river, relax, and join the river.

That is how intrusive thoughts are, especially when learning to meditate. It is very hard for most people to silence them directly. It seems to work a lot better to acknowledge you had a thought, and return to meditating.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#105

Post by douche »

BurningFrog wrote: post #65
terheyden wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, House -> Holmes; Wilson -> Watson.

Cocaine -> Vicodin

Holmes was also quite into opiates himself - I seem to remember a Persian slipper that housed his heroin stash, and some incidents of opium smoking.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#106

Post by reitanqild »

anc84 wrote: post #94
wjdp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When writing SO questions I tend to only press the submit button 5–10% of the time before realising my error (typically something mundane). The act of putting the problem into words, along with writing up a good background of the problem (as you should for a good question) often forces an objective viewpoint/reevaluation of the problem.

Consider posting and answering yourself. I found myself searching for the same problem months later and once I found my own answer.

Hehe, has happened to me as well.

Also when I kept updating my blog posts about stupid problems that gooogle didn't answer seemed to attract some audience.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#107

Post by baxtr »

I'm so weird. I talk to myself all day! But it really helps to structure your thoughts. However it can be quite annonying for yourself: sometimes I can't listen to myself no more and start working. and your environment: my wife complains about me being nerdy, I stop then and start focusing on a good discussion with her, which helps.

I even find myself talking to myself (in my head) when I'm with my kids playing... which is not good at all, but I have the feeling I need the time to think to solve problems.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#108

Post by i336_ »

tayo42 wrote: post #73
i336_ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would actually be an answerable question, because of SO's draft mechanism. Opens new tab Sound of typing https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/296990/what-are-the... I've been thinking along the same lines for a very long time. Thanks for the inspiration to finally ask!

They've responded to questions like that before. https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/5y9l9n/showerthou...

Ooooh, nice one. Thanks for the link!

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#109

Post by rubber_duck »

mowenz wrote: post #66
gregmac wrote: post #5

This 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

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 step by step just as effectively when it comes to coding tasks IMO.

Immediate problem solving/planning like "OK I need to do this then this" is a different story - saying stuff out loud helps here.

Re: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

#110

Post by vanderZwan »

bhrgunatha wrote: post #69
__jal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it isn't even vocalizing - I discovered that forcing things into words helps me troubleshoot after noticing that I solved my own problems after giving up and composing an email to someone to ask for help. The act of describing the problem in written form allowed me to see what I was missing. Since noticing that, I started doing it fairly, and not just with programming. At some point, I realized I was keeping…

Writing things down - or sketching or using mind-maps (not software but actually drawing your own manually) - seems to have an amazing effect on the brain. We haven't been writing long (in evolutionary terms) so I wonder why that is?

I think it's because our brains are good at manipulating tangible things - it's what they've been doing since before we had a neocortex, after all. Making thoughts tangible, sensory experiences can help engage the full machinery of the brain, instead of just limiting it to higher brain functions.
Post reply on HN