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Do you think in pictures?

Do you think in pictures or words?

  • I think in Words!

    Votes: 35 18.1%
  • I think in Pictures!

    Votes: 137 71.0%
  • I have no idea what you mean! (This means you should post a reply to the thread)

    Votes: 21 10.9%

  • Total voters
    193

The Pandector

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Yeah. I see the big picture and work backwards. But then, I learn the same way; I size up the subject a while so I have a place to hang the details. Used to code some; sections of code came the same way. Guess I never thought of it as different.
 

Prometheus

Active Member
I dont know if I would call it pictures, but more concepts, I guess imagary, it's memory , but it's very vague, I don't have photographic recall or anything like that. Though I do remember many things, decently.

Right now, I'm thinking about the black and white movie, frankentein 1933, or 32 I think. You know, where they storm the building , and they burn it to the ground, You know, the big scary monster, that has to be killed, Cause it's very scary,and causing a lot of distress in the community, amongst the town folk. So I guess, I do think visually. But it's all very amorphous.
 

Dagan

Well-Known Member
What I do for work definitely only happens because I think this way. I, too, work backwards, but I learned the process studying how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pulled off the Sherlock Holmes novels. I wanted to understand that man's genius, and so I dug in a lot to find out.
 

Shevek

Well-Known Member
I was delighted with the Sherlock Holmes method, too. The author received quite a few pleas for help in legal cases, and did take up a few. He save one man who was obviously innocent, but it took him ten years to teach the logic to the necessary parties.
 

Xinyta

A seething soul under all this humanity
For me, I would say it is like thinking in imagery. If I can imagine how some things work or if I have seen something like it before, I can typically figure things out. The irony of my having issues with paying attention is that I tend to retain things by seeing how they work after doing them or watching others do something a few times. The same can be said about directions. I suck at directions if I don't have landmarks that relate to roads, intersections, etc. I tend to prioritize buildings or objects over street names and only start remembering street names after being familiar enough with my surroundings.
 

Shevek

Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I was planning how to smooth out an uneven edge with the best appearance, and least waste and effort. I did a quick sketch of how I first thought of doing it. That suggested an improvement, which gave less waste but much more work. Then I saw a far better solution. A few hours later, while congratulating myself, I got another idea, and the sketch showed it was the "obvious" solution. - Easy, economical, and attractive, and also solved a minor problem all the other solutions had over the width of the saw cut.
I guess it is an iterative process. I try to draw what I'm thinking of, and then get better ideas from the things that show up on the paper.
 

Vindiesel

Well-Known Member
What do you mean "think in words?" Or do you mean your first innate response to a lets say "apple."

Did you picture the word apple then a picture of an apple? Is that what you mean?

To think in words doesn't make sense because a word is just letter strung together and seeing/thinking the word "apple" is essentially a picture in it of itself so to me in my opinion doesn't make sense unless we are specifically prioritizing seeing the picture of apple spelled out. Excuse my spiraling.

I think in pictures, schematics, pattern assessment... like this haha
1684855333792.png
 

Ella Spell

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I think in synaesthesia. For apple I see the colour of the word which is influenced by the colour of each letter. I don't see an apple shape. I can't picture things because I have aphantasia.
 

wahoodotwav

New Member
it kinda feels like a mix of both for me? i dont really know how to describe it : oP personally i never understand when people ask about thinking in pictures or words because i never know if they mean seeing or hearing words when they think lol
the way im gonna go with to describe it is that i usually think in loose concepts and emotions. when i think of something, it's usually just the way it feels to me. this happens with a lot of my memories, too--i can think of a vague image for some, but mostly it's just how i feel about it or felt then. it's a lot easier to place what it is i think in when i'm listening to music, though! the emotions/loose concepts are still there but otherwise it's usually all images : o)
if there's some easier explanation for this i have yet to find it. it might be some kind of aphantasia, it might be because i've had 2 bouts of covid and havent had entirely the same brain function since, or maybe it's just not crossing my mind right now and i already know hot to explain it without actually remembering (if that makes sense)
 

TBRS1

Well-Known Member
I visualize concepts in the form of abstract shapes made of interlinking lines of light.

The shape is totally unrelated to the physical world, but I can follow the lines to figure out where problems or contradictions are. I don't know how it works, but it does.

I sometimes work as an artist and can mentally rotate 3d objects in my imagination - a hugely useful art skill, and it makes a lot of puzzle games easy.
 

Ronald Zeeman

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Visually is not really pictures a misnomer. For me things just connect I can see the connections pictures is just a crude analogy.
 

Ronald Zeeman

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Here is an example of how I do it in my previous position I made and designed ink formulas. think of each pigment as a pendulum, swiping out a colour, now add a second pigment it lengthens pendulum sweeping out a new colour , now add a third pigment. it does not lengthen the pendulum but rather acts as a second pendulum attached to the first the colour is not repeatable. Actually, it is chaotic. these are the kind of things I can just see, just reformulate the ink I look like a genius.my mind is able to connect obscure thing others would not remotely see as connected. I do this without even thinking. why asking me questions can be very confusing for others. But perfectly normal for me
 
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Gift2humanity

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I visualize concepts in the form of abstract shapes made of interlinking lines of light.

The shape is totally unrelated to the physical world, but I can follow the lines to figure out where problems or contradictions are. I don't know how it works, but it does.

I sometimes work as an artist and can mentally rotate 3d objects in my imagination - a hugely useful art skill, and it makes a lot of puzzle games easy.
I love the sound of that.
I may have already posted in this thread, if I could telepathically send people pictures rather than describe something, I would love that, but don't tell Elon Musk as he will have some transhumanist idea to make that happen :)
 

Ronald Zeeman

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
keeping with my colour control never worry about the colour but rather the colour tolerance. most people see a tolerance as circle much like a target for shooting. The trick is how close can you get to centre I see an sphere or even an egg. in colour it's about how close you can get to the centre. in other word how do I stop the bullet at the end of its flight ink is not a bullet what I'm looking for is the end of it's, colour development. How can I determine the maximum colour development I have a background in Engineering along with formal education in pigment dispersion, how could I combine both to basically stop the bullet at the centre of a three-dimensional target easy t to see the connection? a bit of lab equipment? Some SPC again genius second nature to me. Nothing proprietary about it to do it you need my clone not many of us around.
 
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MNAus

Well-Known Member
I visualize concepts in the form of abstract shapes made of interlinking lines of light.

The shape is totally unrelated to the physical world, but I can follow the lines to figure out where problems or contradictions are. I don't know how it works, but it does.

I sometimes work as an artist and can mentally rotate 3d objects in my imagination - a hugely useful art skill, and it makes a lot of puzzle games easy.
Similar here. I think in terms of models. Personally I don't have a visual representation in my head but I do have the sensation of them being objects to be manipulated. From them I get impressions of qualities and relationships. Essentially a metagraph.
 

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