He would read aloud to himself (in a quiet voice). He explained that it was his way of keeping himself concentrated, because (in his description) he was reading, speaking, and listening all at the same time, and that that combo overloaded his attention and kept him focused.
He went from graduating towards the top here in our middling uni, to being accepted into Johns Hopkins (but choosing to remain local), and then getting his first-choice residency. He is now an accomplished specialist doctor.
Three notes:
1) He never drank alcohol in his life. It was a distinct advantage, especially in undergrad.
2) He said that he would not let himself be a patient to over 85% or 90% of the doctors that graduated with him from med school.
3) He had a grand total of FOUR HOURS of nutrition education in med school. I think that's insane, but the system is really about pills and procedures.
I played but a miniscule role.
Social death in Blighty.
Our kid spent three years getting rat-arsed in the SU bar (like everyone else) and graduated with a Geoff Hurst in Physics. Just like his mum and dad did.
This definitely resonates, for every health condition the final recommendation is always "consult with a doctor", but if you get multiple opinions doctors will usually contradict each other, and most doctors have mixed opinions about their peers. Makes it hard to just do whatever a doctor tells you and feel you are making the right choice.
When I did this in middle school I was repeated told to stop, and that doing so or talking myself through math problems were "signs of mental illness," and I needed to keep it in my head.
I hated that it made it easier.
but there’s a stigma around that: smart people just “process”.