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Comment by pests | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of some experiment (that I will never be able to find again) that was basically having people count in their head while doing something else, say reading.

Some people were very good at it, others horrible.

One revealed the method they were using - they didn't count audibly, they visualized a ticker tape moving across their vision with numbers increasing. Or say a rotating scale with the numbers rotating. This let them read or internal monologue as the senses are now separate.

I tried to practice for a bit, still impossible to do without thinking about it. Kind of like how people default to counting money in their native way.

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That's interesting. I read your comment in my head while counting and seemed able to keep up, but something more complex might be hard, such as reading out loud.

On another tangent, I've been trying Ritalin after speaking to a doctor. The first thing I noticed when I took it was that it became very difficult to hold multiple trains of thought at the same time. My typical routine (coping mechanism) was to work and have YouTube playing and a little attention on each, because this stopped me getting bored. But it wasn't long before I realised I simply could not hear the videos. It was a strange feeling but nice. A little similar to what you describe in how abilities vary.

These questions keep me up at night. That we only get to experience though our own senses.

I pretty much can only pay attention to one thing at a time. I've tried to watch movies or YouTube while coding or other things on my PC but I end up realizing I wasn't paying attention at all so now I don't even try.

When most people focus on one thing, the active part of the brain will actually 'recruit' neighboring parts (which normally do other things) to help with the main activity. That recruitment may not happen with certain people when they're not on Ritalin. (I am not a neurobiologist)

I'm the other way. I can ignore people talking, but when a coworker has the radio on and the spoken words are faint enough or muddled enough that they're hard to make out, I lose focus on what I'm trying to do because the 'listen to words' part of my brain is trying really hard to figure out what's being said, and pulls in extra brainpower to do it.

It really was eye opening how much difference a small 10mg dose made, and the structures of the modern world made a whole lot more sense with the knowledge that maybe a lot of people are just like this, all the time. I had experienced focus before but it was almost always what people call "hyperfocus" which is a more extreme locking out of the world. I kept notes for my appointment in 3 months since I just noticed so many little things I'd be sure to forget and it'll be fun to review those.

> This reminds me of some experiment (that I will never be able to find again)

That was from Richard Feynman.

Ah yes! That would totally line up. Guessing from his Surely You're Joking book.

Apologies to any if I butchered the story or experiment, been awhile.

It's definitely in the excellent Feynman BBC series "Fun to imagine"

I've never watched but I'll have to check it out! Must be a common story he tells haha.

I have been learning English for close to ~18 years by now, if you count primary school. To this day I can't really count in English unless I force myself to.

This is from Surely You’re Joking

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