A one-way conversation
I work from my home office – when I am not on an airplane going someplace – and the house is often empty. So I spend quite a lot of time alone. As I am an introvert by nature, that is mostly OK. I usually try to leave the house at some point, in order to interact with other members the Human race, and we have an active, evening social life, so the solitude is just part of the picture.
A side-effect of being alone is that I talk to myself …
Since I was a child, I have regarded a “self conversation” as quite normal – well, normal for me anyway. I have always thought that it helped with organizing my thoughts and preparing for situations when I would need to interact with other people. I have learned that not everyone has the same high regard for the practice. Sometimes, when I have raise the topic, people give me odd looks. That gets worse if I mention that I use different voices sometimes. ? At least I do not have arguments with myself!
Some years ago, I developed a useful problem solving technique, which I wrote about here. Essentially, the idea is that you can often solve a problem simply by explaining it to someone else. I had assumed that this worked because the vocalization changed how the brain operates. However, this week I read an article that sheds new light on this idea.
It seems that vocalizing ideas helps you to understand them more fully, because the process slows you down. You can then consider the information at a more leisurely pace. That all makes sense to me. It also explains why making notes can help to internalize information. The article also suggests that talking to yourself is just as good, as the vocalization process is much the same as talking to someone else. Again, that makes sense to me, as I have noticed that my [usually awful] proof reading skills improve drastically when I read text aloud.
Although I do make video blogs, I do not really like seeing myself. However, maybe I should start podcasting and enjoy listening to myself gaining greater insights …
