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Comment by photon_lines | Hacker News Reader

'It's impossible to plan without an internal monologue.' - Sorry, but I disagree with this. I have no 'internal voice' or monologue - whenever I see a problem, my brain actually and fully models it using images. I believe 25% of the population doesn't have the internal monologue which you're referring to and this has been tested and confirmed. I highly recommend listening to this Lex Friedman podcast episode to get a full grasp on the complexities of modelling language and general modelling present in the human brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Jd9GI6XqE

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Sure, I do mention thinking in images in my original comment and count it as some type of internal monologue. I personally do not believe it's all images, as that would preclude using highly abstract concepts. But I might be wrong, and it might be 100% images. That being said, it does count as an internal monologue.

Can you draw a picture of an example of what you see when you think about something?

Sure - with the Alice example, when I saw the problem I came up with a really simple visual example of Alice having 3 sisters and 4 brothers. When I visualized it I saw Alice standing next to 3 other women (her sisters) and her 4 brothers standing close by. When I imagined asking her brother how many sisters he has, I could see that Alice was standing there next to 3 other women and thus came up with the answer of 4. Does this make sense?

This could account for why some people are much better at say geometry than algebra.

I'm the opposite. I rarely visualize things I read, be it geometry or poetry. I can read a detailed description of a person or an item in a novel, and I don't really "see" anything.

But I have an active inner monologue. I "hear" myself saying the words when reading or writing, I "talk" to myself when solving problems or just thinking about stuff.

Especially when programming I'm reasoning by discussing the problem with myself, the only difference being that I usually don't open my mouth and vocalize the discussion. Though sometimes when I'm alone I do just that.

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