[HN Gopher] Talking out loud to yourself is a technology for thi...
___________________________________________________________________
Talking out loud to yourself is a technology for thinking
Author : headalgorithm
Score : 276 points
Date : 2020-12-26 14:27 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (psyche.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (psyche.co)
| randcraw wrote:
| > Speech is not merely a conduit for the transmission of ideas,
| [...] but a generative activity that enhances thinking.
|
| Maybe. Speech does make an idea more concrete. But is the spoken
| formulation of an idea persistent enough that you can examine it
| closely from multiple angles and depths to fully assess its
| validity? Even the written word often lacks the precision needed
| to ensure that the necessity, sufficiency, and
| incontrovertibility of an idea has been addressed in full. An
| idea spoken aloud is but writ on the wind.
|
| When talking to myself, I often find I'm focusing on the best
| single view on my pet notion, embellishing its strengths rather
| than demerits. I need the means to formulate a more tangible
| formula, like a written bulleted list of plusses and minuses.
| Only then am I likely to reveal and redress the chinks in my
| idea's armor. And speaking to myself aloud won't do that.
| ugh123 wrote:
| I do this somtimes. To remove the awkwardness I use a wired
| earpiece (apple headphones) in just one ear to make it look like
| talking on the phone.
| keyP wrote:
| I think this is partly why Rubber Duck Debugging[1] can sometimes
| work, especially if you're vocalising the steps. I've often
| started typing a question on Stackoverflow when suddenly I solved
| the issue just by the act of verbalising the question as I type.
|
| I've found this to also help when I'm doing any sort of creative
| work or brainstorming, simply talking and explaining as if I'm
| presenting to an audience helps me generate ideas. Never spoken
| out loud to myself in public though...
|
| [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
| lttlrck wrote:
| the shift from a asynchronous communications (email) to real-
| time chat (slack/teams) may have led to a significant reduction
| in "thinking things through"
|
| Writing an email or a SO question has a pretty significant
| upfront investment and requires clearer articulation, whereas
| real-time chat seems to lead to shallow enquiry.
|
| In other words with real-time chat, the recipient has become
| the rubber duck.
| 5tefan wrote:
| Seems I'm an outlier. Never do this and it irritates me if others
| in the same room do this. On the other hand my silent thinking is
| sometimes disturbing to whose around me - so I was told.
| john-tells-all wrote:
| The poet Robinson Jeffers also did this. He'd walk around in
| circles composing his poetry. If he stopped...
|
| "He measured out his long poetic lines by walking back and forth,
| and if [his wife] Una didn't hear him pacing, she rapped on the
| ceiling with a broom."
|
| :)
|
| Source: https://harpers.org/archive/2020/09/bright-power-dark-
| peace-...
| genericacct wrote:
| Get a 2FA code in a message, switch to app, code forgotten.
|
| Get a 2FA code in a message, read it out loud, switch to app,
| code remembered.
| TheRealSteel wrote:
| I now always announce out loud when I've taken my medication
| for the day. For some reason it's just easier to remember when
| you say stuff out loud versus just thinking it.
|
| I was inspired by the success of "point and call" from the
| Tokyo train system.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| I have a tendency to lock the door when I leave the
| apartment, go down a flight of stairs, and then go back up to
| check if I _really_ locked the door. Saying "I've locked the
| door" to myself in my head explicitly helps with this.
| grenoire wrote:
| I form a quick 'jingle' in my head, retains the numbers very
| well.
| netmare wrote:
| That's a neat trick, especially in emergency situations.
|
| 0118 999...
| tacocataco wrote:
| Unfortunately the jingle for me is always Tommy Tutone's
| Jenny.
|
| Then it's stuck in my head the rest of the day. I won't type
| the numbers from the chorus to spare you this fate.
| keyle wrote:
| That's so true.
|
| Being bi-lingual I also remember vastly better the 2FA code if
| I speak it in my native tongue.
| a012 wrote:
| I don't read it out loud but iny head, and try to find a
| pattern out of it like a pair of two number/character
| harperlee wrote:
| I do this. It's fascinating how most numbers seem to have a
| (subjective) pattern of some kind; I wouldn't have thought so
| many 2- and 3-digit numbers have some meaning to me!
| xyzelement wrote:
| To solve a problem, we need to be smarter than the problem - or
| the problem needs to be dumber than us.
|
| When vocalizing something, you're forced to constrict the blob of
| complexity you're carrying in your head into a linear narrative,
| which is by definition simpler. Now that you have simplified the
| problem you are more likely to get hold of it and solve it.
|
| This happens all the time - when I am solving a technical/logical
| problem, sometimes I feel like my wife thinks I am just staring
| blankly at the screen day-dreaming. So I get insecure and start
| to explain to her how hard the problem is, but because she's a
| physician I have to translate it into common language first, and
| 99% of the time I say "never mind, got it" before I have a chance
| to really bore her.
|
| Come to think of it, this may be how therapy works. You are
| forced to take all the "mess" that's in your head and narrate it
| to someone else, in the process getting much simpler perspective
| on it.
|
| Writing is the same way for me. For example, all the ideas in
| this post were in my head in some amorphous way, but now that I
| wrote them out they became neat little analogies I can use in the
| future.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| > _Come to think of it, this may be how therapy works. You are
| forced to take all the "mess" that's in your head and narrate
| it to someone else, in the process getting much simpler
| perspective on it._
|
| On a related note: some people close to me like to unload the
| contents of their head at me. I couldn't understand why - I
| initially assumed this was a kind of "I need someone to
| emphasize with me and validate my feelings" thing. Hearing
| roughly similar thoughts about the same issue for the fifth
| time in a month got particularly tiresome, and I struggled to
| understand why these people are doing it. Until one day I
| looked at the evening "mind dumps" I take in my .org mode file,
| and it hit me: _it 's the same thing_. It has the same cadence,
| and same tendency to jump back and forth between related
| topics. Much like I sort through my thoughts by writing them
| down in solitude, these people are sorting through their
| thoughts by talking at me. All that time, I've just been a
| rubber duck.
|
| That is to say: I think not only this may be how therapy works,
| I think many (most?) people do this in social context - perhaps
| being afraid or unacustommed to talking to themselves, or to
| writing thoughts down (one needs to be a fast typist to write
| at the speed of thought, which is perhaps why this kind of
| sorting your thoughts through writing isn't as popular as
| through talking).
| xyzelement wrote:
| > That is to say: I think not only this may be how therapy
| works, I think many (most?) people do this in social context
| - perhaps being afraid or unacustommed to talking to
| themselves, or to writing thoughts down
|
| I agree with that. I see my wife maintain her perspective by
| talking through with friends and family first. I do the same
| by writing.
| amelius wrote:
| > you're forced to constrict the blob of complexity you're
| carrying in your head into a linear narrative, which is by
| definition simpler.
|
| Not necessarily, for example a compiler thinks a tree (AST) is
| simpler than a linear representation ...
| wruza wrote:
| This may have downsides, especially with first simple words
| that come to mind (like in "everything is X" or "this is
| <adjective>"). Words turn ideas into a network of associative
| meanings that already exist and may fix them in stone once you
| get used to it. This happened to me many times so I got a habit
| of asking a lot of questions first rather than verbalizing
| ideas asap, and then using handmade verbs/adjs/nouns to
| describe thin differences.
|
| As a russian classic said, feelings and emotions turned into
| words lose their power. Like a deep overwhelming emotion if
| analyzed and verbalized may turn into "I like her feet" if you
| didn't use/know approriate terms or concepts before.
| xyzelement wrote:
| Right - but no risk of that here because: 1. You've already
| struggled with the amorphity by the time you vocalized it. So
| you're not missing it. 2. If you over-simplify it, you'll
| just not find a solution, so you know.
| neves wrote:
| It is impressive how people reinvent the well in all human
| fields. This is the basis of a lot of the research of soviet
| psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), as in his classic book
| "Thought and Language".
|
| "The tongue is the tool of thought,"
| wpietri wrote:
| I am a big fan of something similar, if less visible: writing as
| I work. For each project, I keep an Evernote [1] note. If I ever
| need to think something through, I'll add a new, dated entry at
| the top and just describe what I'm doing and considering.
|
| This is sometimes useful to refer back to. E.g., to find a
| specific command, or to remember the factors behind a choice. But
| honestly, most of the value is that it requires me to linearize
| and structure my thinking. The advantage to me over self-speech
| is that I can put something down and pick it up again later. If I
| take a break and reread an entry, I come at it with a little
| distance that helps me see things I was missing before.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| I do that too - particularly when dealing with tough problems.
|
| I used to keep an org-mode file for every project I was working
| on, in which I'd brainstorm ongoing issues, but over time,
| these notes started to leak into my general "daily notes", so
| my current pattern is: both at work and at home, I keep a YYYY-
| MM.org (e.g. 2020-12.org) file where I make daily headings and
| write to myself.
|
| The resulting notes are mostly write-only - they're verbose,
| and usually take too much effort to read through (unless I
| anticipate the need for future reference and write a summary on
| purpose). But all of the benefit comes from the very act of
| writing - it does wonders for structuring my thoughts, and I
| find it much better than talking to myself (which I used to do
| a lot when I was younger). My screen has more space than my
| working memory, so when doing written notes, my thinking
| process does much less backtracking.
| khalilravanna wrote:
| I imagine one hack for overcoming social anxiety for doing this
| in public is to put in some airpods or something else that
| indicates you're on a phone call. Most people will assume you're
| on a phone call and won't really care.
|
| For myself I do this constantly. Have done it my whole life. I
| think some people are impressed by my public speaking abilities,
| how I can often come up with pretty persuasive blurbs on the
| spot. But I think it's not impressive at all because I've spent
| so much of my life talking to myself.
|
| I have a hunch a lot of really good comedians and voice actors
| spend a fair amount of time talking to themselves. I can do a
| handful of pretty spot on accents. The key? Being a weirdo and
| messing around with talking to myself in accents frequently.
| bavell wrote:
| I can totally relate to the wierdo accents haha!
|
| Sometimes when I get frustrated with some particularly
| troublesome code while working alone I'll drop into a thick
| english cockney accent (or at least my best impression) and
| start trash-talking the code to vent my frustrations. It's
| pretty cathartic and puts me in a better and slightly humourous
| mood... better than bottling it up!
| enoughBadMath wrote:
| But then people would think I give Apple money.
| sandspar wrote:
| An old magazine article about the actor Matthew McConaughey
| (maybe in the NYT?) mentioned that he carries a tape recorder
| in his car and talks to it on long drives.
|
| Interestingly enough he's recently written an autobiography,
| which he says sprang from his habit of keeping diaries. He says
| he's kept diaries for 36 years.
|
| A "learn by talking" and "learn by writing" person, surely.
| civilized wrote:
| Speaking from experience, I highly recommend _writing_ to
| yourself as well. Use a plain text editor and Markdown. Ask
| yourself questions. Leave half formed ideas in the air and come
| back to them later. Make a whole folder full of markdown notes
| for your different projects.
| rammy1234 wrote:
| I always speak to my confident, which is my wife. I bounce ideas
| and problems to her. she is in the same field as mine. so she
| will just listen and no response. But somehow my mind gets
| cleared up and I see through the problem. I dont do self-talk. In
| longer run it seems to be counter productive. Having a good
| friend or confident will be more powerful is my thought
| 2snakes wrote:
| I was writing about this recently. Language is a system and all
| systems reduce complexity, functioning as a kind of insulation
| from a domain.
| abhayhegde wrote:
| I have realised this works really well when I am unable to focus,
| especially when feeling sleepy. Talking and thereby listening to
| myself helps me reconsolidate my thoughts and I think we are
| better at listening to an external voice than to an internal
| rumbling.
| graderjs wrote:
| I record what I say on voice memos, when I remember, just in case
| I need to hear it again, tho going back to it is rare.
| tdy721 wrote:
| This is a nice new source for explaining my tendencies. In the
| past I have always leaned on the this:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling
|
| Bullet train driver method for continuing precision. Verbalize,
| gesticulate, act.
| JCharante wrote:
| I like to mouth words out to myself to help me think instead of
| talking out loud.
|
| While this is normally perfectly fine during in-person exams,
| this year I've gotten warned for looking suspicious because
| through video surveillance it looks like I'm reading something
| out for somebody else in the room during exams.
|
| Because it's so ingrained in me, I now concentrate on remembering
| to not mouth anything rather than on the test itself.
| topkai22 wrote:
| I had the exact thing happen to me (pre--pandemic). I
| complained pretty extensively to the test sponsor and the
| proctoring organization, as that (and a few other "rules")
| weren't written down anywhere.
|
| I didn't get anywhere but I'd still encourage you to do the
| same. If no one explains the problems with these tests to the
| people paying for them (the teachers, department chairs and
| employers) than they wont know what's going on either.
| amboo7 wrote:
| Reminds me of a (joke about a) professor who used his finger as a
| pointer while reading...
| have_faith wrote:
| I constantly highlight text as I'm reading, clicking
| constantly. No doubt the heatmaps of my journeys through
| websites leave an interesting impression.
| napsterbr wrote:
| Oh, me too!
|
| It is annoying though when websites show a custom "pop-up" to
| the selection, usually to share the "quote" at Twitter. I
| think Medium used to do it, not sure if it still does since I
| always switch to reader mode when I'm there for this very
| reason.
| tartoran wrote:
| Im more vague when I mumble talk outloud and to me the advantage
| to writing things down is that I don't have to slow down the
| thinking process but aid it and let it keep the momentum going.
| Sometimes I can utter a random name to point down a metaphor that
| is still too raw to describe by writing it down, other times I'd
| use talking outloud to gain a few more registers to store a few
| mental items. I sometimes reason better on paper and other times
| the more vague approach helps better.
| divbzero wrote:
| I suspect talking out loud could have even greater benefits for
| people with little or no internal monologue [1]. Would be curious
| to hear if anyone has first-hand experience.
|
| [1]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_monologue#Absence_of_...
| meowzero wrote:
| I recently began to read out loud for my newborn. Currently, she
| doesn't understand what I'm saying. Therefore, I can read
| whatever I want. Sometimes, I read her technical or scientific
| articles, adult-level books, etc.
|
| I read in a "parentese" style with pauses, higher pitch, and
| drawn out vowels. I found that I was understanding the material
| better when I did that. It's not efficient because my reading
| speed slows down. But just the act of read out loud helped in
| retaining information.
|
| Doing things out loud could be some sort of "life-hack" to help
| learn or problem solve.
| [deleted]
| 411111111111111 wrote:
| Uh, while it's true that the child doesn't understand at
| first... Please be aware that it also needs simple words that
| keep getting used in order to actually learn the language.
|
| I'm sure you're doing everything correct and have more then
| enough dialog with the child, but your phrasing made it sound
| like it doesn't matter what you read. It definitely does.
| meowzero wrote:
| My pediatrician said I can read anything to her at her
| current age (under 3 months).
|
| From my research, yes, it does matter what you read to the
| child, but it depends on the age. For someone like my
| daughter's age, the interaction and pitch is more important
| than what's being read.
| javert wrote:
| Nobody really knows the answer to this.
|
| If we know reading simple stuff works, but reading
| scientific papers a child can't possibly understand only
| _might_ be OK, then why would you do the latter?
| kaitai wrote:
| For me I read the complex stuff because 1) math papers do
| put her to sleep, and 2) then I get time to read math
| papers.
|
| The kid will be fine. It's not as if you won't have
| conversations with simple words as well. Is my kid gonna
| understand that Neruda poem about an onion, either? No,
| but she's developing an ear for poetry, consonance,
| assonance, rhyme. And she won't be afraid of the word
| "eigenvector". I grew up with parents who did not know
| the word "eigenvector" and had friends whose grad student
| parents could correct their multivariable calculus
| homework before it got turned in (so she always got
| perfect scores). We both turned out fine.
|
| Talking to oneself as a technology though does get harder
| when you get a lot of, "What, mommy?" in response....
| vojta_letal wrote:
| I do it way too often when I'm alone. Seems like I'm not as crazy
| as I thought :)
| Coromanti wrote:
| Wuuut... I always did this instinctively and people gave me weird
| looks. I guess my body knew what it was doing.
| phissenschaft wrote:
| Very helpful to have a conversation with oneself. I'd sometimes
| try different accents to create an illusion of someone else
| talking.
| NL807 wrote:
| I find myself imagining I'm giving a lecture to an audience about
| the subject or problem I'm studying. It gives me a new
| perspective and allows me to condense what I learnt so far. These
| exercises also helps improving communication with others,
| typically when I need to explain something.
| emteycz wrote:
| I found myself talking like the typical man voice in a National
| Geographic documentary, describing what I need to think about
| like they describe some geological processes. Very useful
| thought process!
| lmilcin wrote:
| Does getting into verbal arguments with myself count or do I need
| to seek help?
|
| I don't vocalize but other than that I talk to myself a lot and
| sometimes also simulate my interlocutor. For example I might be
| testing ways to defend my argument, asking/answering questions,
| etc.
| offtop5 wrote:
| Whenever I have a personal epiphany, I tend to record a quick
| vocal note of it. Recently I've been kind of thinking you should
| only get involved with people who are going to add to your
| equation. For example last year I had the pleasure of knowing
| someone who made around 200k. Within a year of meeting her I was
| also making 200k. compared to getting involved with someone who
| doesn't have a job, and therefore your life turns into chaos.
| wrnr wrote:
| That is also why people post comments online
| smichel17 wrote:
| It is primarily why I post on HN.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Same here. I often find myself writing similar things under
| similar topics, but the very act of writing a comment makes
| me refine my beliefs just a bit.
|
| (And then I can always count on other people to call me on my
| bullshit, which is another learning opportunity.)
| netflixandkill wrote:
| In many ways this seems to have replaced diaries as a way of
| organizing your thoughts prior to screaming them into the void,
| with the bonus of spam and random racist diatribes.
|
| Perhaps bonus is the wrong word there.
| ykevinator wrote:
| I do this too but in private. Author is unaware of her narcissism
| csommers wrote:
| Started doing this a few years back - not only does it help with
| public speaking, but it also is a form of debugging whatever
| you're talking through.
|
| Nothing wrong with having a little external monologue.
| globular-toast wrote:
| I reckon in a large city you could get away with this without
| even any weird looks. People might think you're on the phone or
| they might think you're crazy. Either way they won't give it a
| second thought.
|
| I don't employ speaking out loud in my own methods, but I do
| scrawl extensive notes. I can't think straight if I can't take
| notes with pencil and paper. Whenever a non-trivial problem
| arises I always break out the paper. I wonder if it's a similar
| mechanism.
| heymijo wrote:
| In your head > out loud > on paper > to someone else.
|
| "First you communicate with yourself." - Peter Drucker
|
| I remember Drucker laying out this hierarchy for communication
| in his tome on management. Each step is progressively harder.
| Something that made sense in your head, you might not be able
| to articulate on paper. Something you just wrote may not
| communicate to someone else.
|
| IME, it is spot on.
| Invictus0 wrote:
| You might want to replace > (greater than) with -> (arrow), I
| was confused at first.
| heymijo wrote:
| I see how that could be confusing. I am unfortunately past
| my edit window but thanks for the feedback.
| porpoise wrote:
| I do this all the time, but mostly outside. A nice bonus of doing
| this outside (besides the fresh air, etc) is you can often recall
| precisely where you were and what was on your visual field (since
| it's constantly changing unlike at home) when you had a
| particular thought, so you can refer to to it later as "that
| thought I had when I was approaching that icecream truck in Red
| Hook".
|
| If you are self-conscious like I was when I first started doing
| this, it helps to put on some kind of headphone, if only to put
| yourself at peace by the thought "they'll just think I'm talking
| on the phone".
|
| When I have a good thought, I record it on my phone (or dictate
| it into Gboard, which works offline) and later upload the mp3 to
| an app called Otter, which gives extremely good transcription and
| allow me to search through years' worth of voice notes by text
| but also be able to instantly hear myself talking from 2 years'
| ago, which I find to be much more effective for resuming a train
| of thought than looking at typed notes.
| daneel_w wrote:
| Tiny nitpick: a method, or technique, would be the correct word.
| It's certainly not a technology.
| tomgp wrote:
| My hunch is that part of the efficacy of pair programming is down
| to the fact that it legitimises speaking your thoughts out loud
| as you code, bringing your assumptions and process to your own
| attention. (As well as the other more oft-related benefits of
| having someone else available to vet & supplement those things)
| cryptoslug wrote:
| Airpods made the anxiety around self-talk-in-public so much
| easier. Finally, I feel seen.
| ncfausti wrote:
| I'm learning how to write mathematical proofs now, and just today
| I wrote in my notes: "talk things through out loud".
|
| It really is amazing the clarifying effect it can have. We think
| we have a good idea of what some concept entails, but once we
| speak it (or write it down), it finally starts to take a more
| defined "shape".
| manmal wrote:
| Possibly related: There's a method widely used in Japanese
| industry, called ,,pointing and calling":
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling
|
| Obviously humans make less mistakes when they audibly point out
| circumstances under which they make a decision or perform an
| action.
| mapster wrote:
| For me it helps with organizing an approach or schedule, but for
| bigger issues I use THC and a long walk outdoors. This lets me
| get outside myself and visualize the problem from new angles and
| big and small scale.
| phobosanomaly wrote:
| This is my absolute favorite way to spend an evening. Wandering
| around the neighborhood with a THC vape pen thinking about a
| problem. Helps me get in about 5 miles of walking every evening
| too.
| ilaksh wrote:
| Sometimes I think my version of this is writing comments on HN.
| :/
| napsterbr wrote:
| Sometimes that helps!
|
| Countless times I was stuck in something and decided to open an
| issue or add a question to stack overflow.
|
| When I interact "formally" with the community like this, I do
| my proper diligence and try to add as much detail and context
| as possible. That's the least I can do for someone that will
| try to help me.
|
| While I'm adding this context, my assumptions, what went wrong,
| what I've tried and so forth, I often notice I solve the issue
| on my own!
|
| I'd say more than half of the times I act to open an issue or
| ask a question, I figure out the issue myself midway.
|
| I guess talking to oneself out loud and writing question-
| reports are a variation of the rubber duck method.
| napsterbr wrote:
| Walking in circles within the house and talking to myself out
| loud: I do this all the time, especially when I need to figure
| out a particularly hard problem (an algorithm to solve a
| particular issue, an architecture that handles my business needs
| etc).
|
| Last time I started a new project and worked on its architecture,
| I walked over 10km in a single day, according to my cellphone
| pedometer. In a tiny apartment! This trend lasted for a month,
| after which I sat down to actually implement this.
|
| I thought it was just me being autistic but it's interesting to
| know others do it as well :)
|
| I never worked in an office setting, but I can only imagine it
| would be extremely prejudicial to people like me and the author.
| Restraining us to a table would limit our output for the sole
| reason we would be unable to pace and think (no space and too
| much social pressure).
|
| Anecdata: sometimes I visit my parents and work from their place.
| I can't pace there because I don't feel comfortable doing so, and
| that alone is enough for me to not be able to tackle challenging
| problems there.
| anonytrary wrote:
| I'm the exact same, although unlike some others, I only talk to
| myself when I'm alone or with someone who I am comfortable
| with. I've gotten complaints from neighbors below me at least
| twice due to this. Apparently it sounds like "a loud TV is on
| all the time". It would suck to live underneath someone who
| paces 5 miles a day in their apartment. I've made an effort to
| be quieter, but I can't imagine not being able to do this. I
| started recording my thoughts on my phone (using low quality
| because I have hundreds of hours of recordings now). It really
| helps and is an alternative to using a journal.
| Roritharr wrote:
| My wife significantly reduced my Home-Office productivity by
| forbidding me to walk around while calling or designing things.
| She has problems concentrating when I do it so I understand,
| it's a major reason to move to a larger house next month.
| contingencies wrote:
| Buy her a VR headset and a book on memory palaces: cheaper
| than a house!
| wruza wrote:
| Yeah, talking to yourself is usually attributed to being a
| psycho, but I do this too. In crowdy environments I just do it
| quietly enough to be perceived as mumbling, as many other
| people.
|
| I didn't read tfa, but my guess is that with more senses
| involved, you get better short term memory coherence. Waiving
| your hands around the board or looking at pen-paper and drawing
| also helps. When in doubt, walk. When it is really hard,
| bathroom.
| dmingod666 wrote:
| Just get a bluetooth headset, nobody will question you. You
| can record yourself on it too, helpful to playback later..
| adkadskhj wrote:
| It's funny, i also walk + talk to myself a ton - and work
| from home. However, i don't imagine a recording would help
| much for me. My verbal speech is often half thoughts, ideas
| expressed in partial to what is running through my mind.
|
| Sometimes i come up with a well phrased final conclusion,
| but that's more rare i think. Usually it's impossible to
| follow from the outside.
| tartoran wrote:
| Why bother, who cares what other people say? The recording
| thing is not necessarily a bad idea but who has time to go
| through hours of mumbling? I'd record main ideas and
| summaries to have them be converted into text and revised.
| But ultimately the best way to go about this is to write
| things down either electronically or on paper and use self
| talking and circular walking as aids to this process
| kordlessagain wrote:
| > talking to yourself is usually attributed to being a psycho
|
| Only if there are voices you hear in return are you
| considered "psychotic", with psychosis being defined as
| seeing or hearing things that are not real or attributed to
| self.
|
| Our thoughts are real and there is nothing wrong with
| speaking those thoughts out loud any more than making a
| Youtube video for others to watch later (even yourself).
| bavell wrote:
| Agreed, I think it's perfectly normal as long as you don't
| think you're _actually_ talking to someone (or hearing
| someone).
|
| I'll pace around talking to myself when prepping for a
| meeting - it's basically practice for the topics I know
| we'll be discussing. I even practice responses to what I
| anticipate their likely responses will be.
|
| It really helps because verbalizing something makes you
| think more deeply about how to communicate the idea or
| concept and will sometimes reveal gaps in your
| understanding or will reveal that you understand it but
| need to find a good way to concisely convey it to someone
| else who may not have the same level of expertise.
| imposter wrote:
| I do this too, infact I built a walking desk to just assist
| this habit of mine, so that I can think while looking at my
| screen and then also walk at the same time. I have been using
| it for the past couple of days, and till now tbh it doesn't
| really feel the same as it does with walking around the room
| but I'm slowly getting used to it, and my knee pain from
| sitting is gone
| mojuba wrote:
| Walking absolutely helps and I do that a lot whenever I have a
| chance i.e. alone, but I'm not sure about talking out loud. In
| my mind an architectural/software problem is a structural
| thing, or a puzzle you need to put together mentally. Talking
| would only distract me from solving it.
| wodenokoto wrote:
| This made me think of Scrooge mcDuck from the 90's Disney
| cartoon Duck Tales.
|
| He does the same thing all the time and in one episode even so
| much as to leave a deep, donut shaped trench in his floor.
| simias wrote:
| I'm the same as you and I did use to work in an office setting.
| I'd just go outside and walk around the building. Sometimes I'd
| walk for an hour aimlessly around the city, just talking to
| myself like a lunatic.
| _underfl0w_ wrote:
| This is also a fantastic way to do the opposite - bring a
| book/reader/tablet/phone (and maybe a fruit or snack) and
| power through some learning materials.
| gonzo41 wrote:
| No harm at all getting your steps up for the day.
| eternalban wrote:
| The method works. The only open question is clockwise or
| counter-clockwise?
|
| [p.s. I've gotten good result with elongated ovals too, btw.
| The main feature seems to be that the body is "going back to
| where one started". This seems to help the thinking process.]
| mojuba wrote:
| Funny to see so many people doing the same.
|
| My current apartment's topology is such that I can make 8's
| in it (while thinking of course). I'd never think a simple
| change in topology can make your thought process a little bit
| more interesting.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I do walk when talking to people on the phone. I think it's
| because my brain approach communication as a problem to solve
| u_u;
| Cyph0n wrote:
| Same here!
| swsieber wrote:
| I do as well. I have found I still gesture on the phone too,
| despite people not being able to see me.
|
| Also, I sloppily "conduct" classical music I'm listening too
| if I'm working in something hard alone.
|
| Having a private space is nice.
| porkbrain wrote:
| Your comment and this article brings me great joy. I do the
| same, I walk in circles even in tiny spaces. I like to put
| notebook and a pen on a table and sketch my thought process.
|
| At home, this earned me the nickname "satellite". I felt
| uncomfortably self aware when I just moved in with my partner.
| Fortunately she finds it soothing.
| africanboy wrote:
| I do that too
|
| When I work from the office I take long walks outside when I
| need to think
|
| I also "occupied" one (very) small meeting room and made it my
| private office, so I can close the door when I need it
|
| But honestly sometimes talking about the problem with other
| people works as well as talking with yourself or the laptop
| bikeshaving wrote:
| I find walking in small circles is even better if you have a
| tiled floor which can be felt tactilely underfoot. If I ever
| own a house, the one thing I'll focus on is kitchen tiling with
| an interesting pattern.
| kgwxd wrote:
| When I'm on the phone for work, and no one is home, there is
| a rug in my living room with patters at various angles, just
| large enough to fit my feet, I tend to move around the rug
| like I'm following those numbered dance steps you see on the
| floor in dance classes.
| bavell wrote:
| Ah good, it's not just me haha
| tomgp wrote:
| I'm a pacer too and recently found my daughter seems to have
| inherited the trait the upshot being that we occasionally
| collide whilst we pace around the kitchen muttering to
| ourselves. Hopefully with time we'll be able to work out
| collision free routes
| ab3rC1te wrote:
| Yeah, just don't speak near any cell phones since many ideas
| have been stolen from people that spoke out loud when big
| brother and high end elites that have money can rob the little
| man of his ideas. What a world we live in now.
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