As a programmer you’d think I would be a verbal thinker. But if you try to give me directions I will most likely not understand them and would prefer a map. When I count I think in terms of adding five dots to three dots like you would see on dice. Or count on my fingers. I don’t really feel I understand something unless I can draw a picture of it.
I have a bad memory for names but not faces. But for some reason I can hold an entire program code in my mind once I’ve written it and remember all the variables etc. Which is weird. It’s kind of intuitive. But ask me to explain the code in words and I just can’t.
On the other hand I can write quite well and remember conversations I’ve had quite well. But following a plot in a movie where there is a lot of explanation or many characters is very hard!
I envision all of my memories/thoughts as boxes with strings tied to them, and each string ties to related boxes, and all related boxes are inside of larger boxes that have strings tied to them, and so on and so forth. If I have to add 5+3 then I don’t need to do anything special. That’s just a pattern that’s stored in a box somewhere, and that box is well used enough that it’s TSR by nature. If I have to add 3848937424+123134/3, then I use a calculator. My program code is also grouped into boxes, but only in broad strokes. I know that “functionality X is in box Y” which points me to the relevant source code. Of course I have internal garbage collection going on that tosses out boxes after a period of nonuse.
The main problem with this approach is that I can’t generally get anything done until all the boxes are in order. They start out floating out in space with no strings attached and I have to break them down into their smallest pieces to attach the strings. After that’s done, rearranging the strings to look at a problem from different perspectives is no big deal.
[quote=“yoonitee, post:1, topic: 578044, username:yoonitee”]
As a programmer you’d think I would be a verbal thinker. But if you try to give me directions I will most likely not understand them and would prefer a map. When I count I think in terms of adding five dots to three dots like you would see on dice. Or count on my fingers. I don’t really feel I understand something unless I can draw a picture of it.
[/quote]An artist I know, when ever he explaining things, he is drawing with his finger in the air or on a table. Its funny, because he will point back at the imaginary picture he drew when trying to make a point.
Same here. Though code is words and letters, I visualize abstractly, easily and “see” through large process very clearly, but as you say, not as words. Though counter-intuitive, many of the best programmers I know are highly visual.
I tend to think in terms of high level concepts, ideas and strategies. Makes me great at finding innovative solutions, at high level design, and at predicting the future. On the other hand I find completing things rough. And the small details often bore me.
My chemical engineering background trained me to think in terms of systems, unit operation and flow. A computer programme is a system or group of systems that data flows through. Each class in the system is a unit operation that does some manipulation on the data. Concepts like encapsulation and OOP come really easy with this training.
In practical terms I draw pictures. Most of my initial code is done in diagrams. I also like the purity of equations. Words and language are pretty high level. If I’m designing a system for someone else to build I’ll write it in plain English first. A plain English description helps massively with teams.
Oh, and faces, names, clothing, I haven’t got a shot. But I’ll remember exactly what concept we discussed, and you’ll be pigeonholed in my head base on the concepts we discuss. I won’t be able to describe you afterwards other then the guy who talked about Star Wars and Disney’s habit of cloning games.
I am fascinated by these kinds of things and actively try to push myself to learn more and more.
I am primarily an abstract thinker. I learn by the “big picture” first, and it’s made learning to program quite frustrating.
Side Note: People seem to be proud of “I learned the hard way” which is so strange to me. I’ve noticed some very strange opinions being declared to new-comers in programming. It’s very discouraging, and I can see why so many people fail to learn to program.
If I’m learning something, and you don’t start with the big picture, I struggle. I’ve noticed this at job training sometimes. People seem to go straight down to zoom level and never touch the big picture. I can’t learn stuff by listening to, “do this, then this, then this, then this, then this, then this, then this.” Notice the random formating? That’s how context feels when you present non-connected information in a linear structure, rather than an experience driven explanation. I don’t do well when anybody assumes I have their experience.
It has to be like “okay, there’s a thing. And it has this system with 3 major parts. They influence each other these ways, which causes these benefits. Here’s how the first one works.” Now I understand the relevance of the information BEFORE I learn it. I don’t have to wait 2 weeks of getting it wrong, to come to conclusion of how to use a tool.
I prefer “feeling” what the right next step in a solution needs to be and intuiting answers instead of architecting them in advance, which has made programming an unnatural practice for me. I’ve only become somewhat good with code after years of struggling with its rigidity. While I enjoy the fruits of that labor, working with algorithms makes me feel mentally constrained, mundane, and unimaginative.
Some people suggest that writing an essay, with all its structure and strategy, is a lot like writing a program, but I find the mentality of each to be incompatible. Give me a blank page and the whole English lexicon any day!
I am very visual. When in college, I would see pages of my notes while taking tests and actually in my mind, I would leaf through the notebook to find what I needed. I also have problems remembering names but can always remember faces. If name tags are present, I will remember the name by recalling the name tag on their shirt and the words written on the tag. If I need to drive somewhere I have never driven to, I need to look at a map. I can call it up on googlemaps and even if I forget the map at home, which I usually do, I can visualize it in my head. But…if someone gives me directions verbally, forget it…I will never find it.
I have a daughter who has an audio/verbal memory as well as visual. At 4, she memorized a tape of a Harry Potter book, and read it back to us while looking at the book. It was perfect, every single word. We thought she could read! LOL
I wonder if this is true. It says: People who place their right thumb on top of their left thumb tend to be left-brain dominant, and are thus more verbal and analytical. Those placing their left thumb on top of their right thumbs tend to be a right-brain dominant, and thus excel in visual, spatial and intuitive tasks. Probably not since the whole left-right brain thing is a bit outdated.
I think it may be to do with how good your short term memory is. i.e. to be a verbal thinker you need to memorise long streams of instructions. Which is very difficult to do if your short term memory is bad.
I have a theory that people with bad short term memories have re-purposed this part of their brain for higher level thought. The absent minded professor syndrome. (Well I like to think so anyway! :)) It kind of makes sense since chimps have very good short term memory but lack higher level thought.
My hands are stubborn and keep trying to put the thumbs side-by-side. Though the arrangement of my fingers leads me to believe that I’m left-brained. I am fairly decent with spoken languages and generally able to pick out a few words or even phrases without paying any real attention so it may have some accuracy.
When I fold my hands together, my thumbs are pressed at the tips. My hands keep enough distance so that they rest against each other, neither is on top.
As a crazy person with great problem solving skills and a horrible memory, I would definitely like to believe this.
Actually the parts of the brain are very relevant and has been expanded upon greatly. The problem is that its taught poorly. (just like MBTI is taught poorly and people think its BS) I was just watching a neuro scientist the other day talk about how the left and right brain are differently responsible for the projection of the future, reflection on the past, and quantifying the present moment.
Also there’s vertically divided parts to our brain’s evolution and have significant social and logical situations. They have to do with fight-or-flight, context, and problem solving responses.
