So, I heard of aphantasia (the lack of a ‘mind’s eye’ or ability to visualize) after I noticed a pattern in my customers at the job shop: The creative types that needed something made that was out of their wheelhouse (the musician who wanted to design an accessory for their instrument, the sculptor who needed a water hose…thing for their studio, the carpenter who needed a duct attachment for his saw) I could describe what I was going to do in words to them and they got it.
The business school BMW driving golf shorts Karens who had an idea they wanted to “invent?” If I showed them a CAD model, it had to be correctly colored. The wood part had better be brown or it was outside their capacity to comprehend. Absolutely no ability to think abstractly. I wonder if this had been pounded out of them by whatever caused the rest of their personality. Or, if the inability to visualize just pipes people into business school.
Your understanding of Aphantasia is a bit off, I think the folks in the second group are just stupid. I have complete Aphantasia, and if it was explained to me, I can understand what your plans for something would be. If I was shown a CAD model, it would be extremely clear. The things I can’t do is see my wife’s face in my head, or picture the last place I left something. However, that doesn’t mean I couldn’t describe to you what my wife looked like, or that I can’t remember where I left something. Also, thinking abstractly is what people with Aphantasia are best at. I can’t remember the specifics, but they are significantly more likely to end up in a STEM field where all they do is abstract thought (myself included)
I understand though, it’s easy for me to think about how someone who can picture things in their mind would experience things, because I can see things with my eyes. But someone who has a mind’s eye can’t really understand what it would be like to not have one. Most things that people would think are issues for me aren’t, I’ve just got different ways of remembering and thinking about things that doesn’t require needing to see them in my head.
I do have a mind’s eye, and quite a capable one apparently. I’ve seen some people say they imagine in flat shades or even in black and white, I can imagine and remember things as clearly as I can see. I can imagine the cross section of an engine running. I can’t vouch that my mind correctly models firing order and timing of an engine of more than two cylinders but if I focus on one cylinder the details are right.
I also have quite a capable mind’s ear. Pretty much all day I hear my thoughts in my head as if they’re being spoken, I can also imagine music. I just tried it out by imagining the Top Gun anthem as played on the SNES’ sound chip with that orchestra sound that was used on the console quite a lot. Not a problem.
It utterly fascinates me that some people outright can’t do that.
This reminds me of the time I showed a design mockup with lorem ipsum text and a couple of people got really confused by it and were still confused even after I explained it’s just filler text.
Having Aphantasia (no minds eye) or Anendophasia (no inner voice) is just a different way of perceiving the world.
Here is an article that show that even though peops have these (I know because I am both) it does not need to affect their lives. I did not even know I had these until my late 50’s.
Below is an article that shows this. A quote from the article.
“Surprisingly, within fields as varied as science, art, politics, and sports, some of the most innovative and successful figures openly acknowledge having Aphantasia.”
My brother has aphantasia but is a better artist than me. And I spend most my day in my minds eye. I have to explain to people that half the time Im looking at something I’m not actually even seeing through my eyes anymore. I completely check out like I’m dreaming
The BMW driving golf shorts Karen probably suffered from bike shedding. A lot of faux leadership types often feel the need to contribute something, even if it’s something mundane, into “complex” (in their eyes) projects.
Honestly you want them to be picky about the color because they might be picky about something else that would be harder to control.
Yeah that wasn’t aphantasia (someone with aphantasia would have no problem understanding your model; probably even less than someone without it, in fact); that was them having their heads so far up their own arse they weren’t able to see and think properly (and lack of experience doing the latter).
So, I heard of aphantasia (the lack of a ‘mind’s eye’ or ability to visualize) after I noticed a pattern in my customers at the job shop: The creative types that needed something made that was out of their wheelhouse (the musician who wanted to design an accessory for their instrument, the sculptor who needed a water hose…thing for their studio, the carpenter who needed a duct attachment for his saw) I could describe what I was going to do in words to them and they got it.
The business school BMW driving golf shorts Karens who had an idea they wanted to “invent?” If I showed them a CAD model, it had to be correctly colored. The wood part had better be brown or it was outside their capacity to comprehend. Absolutely no ability to think abstractly. I wonder if this had been pounded out of them by whatever caused the rest of their personality. Or, if the inability to visualize just pipes people into business school.
Your understanding of Aphantasia is a bit off, I think the folks in the second group are just stupid. I have complete Aphantasia, and if it was explained to me, I can understand what your plans for something would be. If I was shown a CAD model, it would be extremely clear. The things I can’t do is see my wife’s face in my head, or picture the last place I left something. However, that doesn’t mean I couldn’t describe to you what my wife looked like, or that I can’t remember where I left something. Also, thinking abstractly is what people with Aphantasia are best at. I can’t remember the specifics, but they are significantly more likely to end up in a STEM field where all they do is abstract thought (myself included)
I understand though, it’s easy for me to think about how someone who can picture things in their mind would experience things, because I can see things with my eyes. But someone who has a mind’s eye can’t really understand what it would be like to not have one. Most things that people would think are issues for me aren’t, I’ve just got different ways of remembering and thinking about things that doesn’t require needing to see them in my head.
I do have a mind’s eye, and quite a capable one apparently. I’ve seen some people say they imagine in flat shades or even in black and white, I can imagine and remember things as clearly as I can see. I can imagine the cross section of an engine running. I can’t vouch that my mind correctly models firing order and timing of an engine of more than two cylinders but if I focus on one cylinder the details are right.
I also have quite a capable mind’s ear. Pretty much all day I hear my thoughts in my head as if they’re being spoken, I can also imagine music. I just tried it out by imagining the Top Gun anthem as played on the SNES’ sound chip with that orchestra sound that was used on the console quite a lot. Not a problem.
It utterly fascinates me that some people outright can’t do that.
This reminds me of the time I showed a design mockup with lorem ipsum text and a couple of people got really confused by it and were still confused even after I explained it’s just filler text.
Having Aphantasia (no minds eye) or Anendophasia (no inner voice) is just a different way of perceiving the world.
Here is an article that show that even though peops have these (I know because I am both) it does not need to affect their lives. I did not even know I had these until my late 50’s. Below is an article that shows this. A quote from the article.
“Surprisingly, within fields as varied as science, art, politics, and sports, some of the most innovative and successful figures openly acknowledge having Aphantasia.”
https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/world/20-famous-people-with-aphantasia/
My brother has aphantasia but is a better artist than me. And I spend most my day in my minds eye. I have to explain to people that half the time Im looking at something I’m not actually even seeing through my eyes anymore. I completely check out like I’m dreaming
The BMW driving golf shorts Karen probably suffered from bike shedding. A lot of faux leadership types often feel the need to contribute something, even if it’s something mundane, into “complex” (in their eyes) projects.
Honestly you want them to be picky about the color because they might be picky about something else that would be harder to control.
Drop the “the”! It’s cleaner!
(a memorable line dropped by Justin Timberlakes character in the Social Network. It sums up this phenomenon pretty well.)
Makes me wonder if it’s good for our society to allow such creativity challenged people to obtain such positions of power.
We need more people with imagination
Yeah that wasn’t aphantasia (someone with aphantasia would have no problem understanding your model; probably even less than someone without it, in fact); that was them having their heads so far up their own arse they weren’t able to see and think properly (and lack of experience doing the latter).
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