Why Talking to Yourself Might be The Highest Form of Intelligence
Network Neurons 1 - Gerard79
Have you ever found yourself asking someone a question you’ve been puzzling over for a long time, only to come up with the answer half way through asking the question?
At Madgex, the developers refer back to an old beer advert for John Smiths when trying to solve problems. They find that when they need help, just calling someone over and explaining the problem to them often gives them the answer half way through. The cardboard cut-out of the man in the advert to stand behind them is thought to be all that is required when a coding or logic issue arises rather than a real person.
So, what’s happening and how can this observation shed light on why vision and goal setting works?
At its core, when you ask someone something you consciously articulate it. You explain it and frame the issue for the person. Most importantly however, you explain it and (re)frame it for yourself. You give direction to your other-than-conscious very clearly. Now you may question why actually articulating something gives any different result to just sitting there unspeakingly struggling with the question.
Two things. First, in giving words to (or writing onto paper) an issue and adding the clarity and clarifications required to make something understandable to someone else has the same impact on your other-than-conscious. You may think that you’re being clear about an issue in your head, but you rarely are. You’re more likely to be half articulating the issue and then immediately looping into the same consciously derived result you keep on getting which is failing to remove the problem or blocker.
And this is the second point. By talking to yourself (again, words or paper is good – words may be better because of how unusual you may experience the sensation), your conscious brain gives a clear set of instructions to your other-than-conscious brain. You ask yourself the question and often answer it very quickly yourself because the totality of your resources (conscious and unconscious) are now engaged to a common endeavour (and in most cases, you knew the answer to the problem: it just needed unlocking by you being clear with yourself)
Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor takes the essence of this a big step further in her book, My Stroke of Insight, when she says ‘From my perspective, the focused human mind is the most powerful instrument in the universe, and through the use of language, our left brain is capable of directing (or impeding) our physical healing and recovery
On a connected use of articulation (left brain/ right brain), related to my previous post on rules for personal productivity, some great advice from Harvard Business on How to Write To-Do Lists that Work – the second section is all about providing sufficient detail in a ‘to-do’ on a to do list as you would if you were instructing a personal assistant.
Other linked posts:
Questioning Yourself as a Higher Form of Talking to Yourself? – does the apparent weakness of self-questioning hide a better problem solving technique?
Talking to Myself Again – communicating to yourself as stress relief
Creativity and the Business Brain (and why most of us should be sacked) – talking to yourself is good for framing the blockers, with diffuse day-dreaming as the really creative stuff?
Just Seven Things 
Another way of looking at this is that it is not the verbal reformulation of the problem that is important but rather the unfocussing on the problem itself. This slightly looser explanation also caters for the “making a cup of coffee” or “having a good crap” approach to problem solving. Don’t get me wrong, I think verbalising a problem is nearly always a good approach but I don’t think it’s the only thing that is going on when you are struggling to escape from a “local minimum”. It is worth noting that people with the bloodiest foreheads tend to be able to explain in great length and depth why they perceive that they are heading for trepanation.
Totally agree. I think I’m only just learning to ask after buzzing from the caffeine and spending too long on the toilet…..
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Yeah, it’s called maieutics. Greeks knew it 2500 years ago.
it works for finding lost tools too, that is, you call them & then wait for a reply. If they get too long winded though it’s time to get rid of them.
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It are fact:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
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Ingenuity or paranoid schizophrenia?
You wrote;
“By talking to yourself (again, words or paper is good – words may be better because of how unusual you may experience the sensation), your conscious brain gives a clear set of instructions to your other-than-conscious brain.”
I am a big believer in this. In fact a lot of the thinking I have done over the last year or two involves asking myself “how I feel about something” and then noticing the reaction.
Then asking myself “what do I have to believe in order to experience this feeling”
Many things come up that I normally would have never thought!
I talk to myself like this example: “Wow, what did I do with my attitude to my daughter…well, she will be okay cuz she knows what to do and I’m not going to enable her”.
There are few facts our conscience doesn’t allow us to disclose that also makes the problem statement incomplete for others. We know the answer for ourselves but seeking an answer from others is mostly to get rid of our dilemma and also to get some unseen facts that we are not clear of.
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Take a look at Lev Vygotsky’s inner speech theory:
Click to access v6-ehrich.pdf
That`s quite a good theory actually, I’m quite in agreement that Vygotsky’s inner speech theory should be pushed forward in terms of use.
Food for thought:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Consciousness_in_the_Breakdown_of_the_Bicameral_Mind
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Emil Coué and Jesus Christ suggested the same thing already long ago!
I usually think of this kind of issue as being personality. In Myers-Briggs typology, Extroverts thinks out loud and Introverts think on their own; It depends on where you find your energy. As for myself, I find that designing complex processes are often dealt better with on my own, and that the interruptions of others’ ideas are counterproductive, while new solutions are best handled in a group or by talking with others.
We know the answer for ourselves but seeking an answer from others is mostly to get rid of our dilemma and also to get some unseen facts that we are not clear of.
In fact a lot of the thinking I have done over the last year or two involves asking myself
What I’ll do when I want to see how well I understand a concept is mentally pretend I’m teaching a class on the subject. I’ll even have the ‘students’ ask questions. It is amazing how well this works in finding deficiencies in my understanding of a topic.
In our lab, as programmers, we “Ask Grandma”. Formulate how to ask a layman the question and lo and behold, the answer, (more often than you might think), comes to you. Magic!
Using onself to answer questions relates to using the local help on an application. Online help is easier to obtain and most of the time expert advice will be obtained. I think the networking between brains is what make the human brain limitless. But that dependency is diminishing our brain power. Proof of this is how this article inspired us to write our 5 line opinion. Human nature is to interact and ask. Self thinking is left for weird geniouses we did not invite to our parties.
I will unplug from the network and enhance my local help files, more often.
Good article until you mentioned Jill Bolte, who gave one of the worst psuedo-scientific TED Talks I can recall. It relied on erroneous analogies such as ‘the left brain is a serial processor, the right brain is a parallel processor’ (the whole brain is massively parallel, everywhere) and ignores facts such as the right brain is capable of learning and taking over language processing in children who have had portions of their left brain removed (to treat epilepsy). If you talk about integration of sensory information and awareness, you want to talk about specific brain systems and cortical columns, NOT make monolithic statements about left brain vs. right brain that get overgeneralized into the silly notion of inaccurately labelling people ‘left brain’ or ‘right brain’.
“The only problem with talking to yourself is that half the time you know what you’re going to say next.”
In university, when learning for exams, I used to obtain the best results (memorizing and understanding and clarifying concepts) when reading the course twice and then walking around the room pretending to teach the course to an imaginary student of mine.
Alex, what an amazing idea! I hope you don’t mind if I nab that!!!
Not one for actually talking out loud with myself. But with my internal voice, having conversations constantly. (usually when there isn’t some irritating song bouncing around my head instead)
When creating software, it is very helpful to put your thoughts into words, so that when you (or someone else) reads the code, maybe several months or years later it will help restore the faded neural pathways. Also helpful getting yourself out of a mental block before the onset of procrastination.
1. Is it possible that people who ‘Think Loud’ are better at finding soultions?
2. This is particularly true for conflict resolution. Defining the conflict correctly (by overwrighting both the sides of the conflict several times) really helps.
One thing about me, when I need to solve a problem, I turn off the lights, close the door, and keep moving in the room while talking to myself loudly. :D
Thanks for the nice post! :)
Thank god I’m not nuts
Thank you for this information. I know that here lately I have been really stressed and have several issues to deal with both professionally and in my personal life. I have found myself driving down the road talking out my issues out loud and find that I am finding answers to some issues that I was having just by talking it out myself. I was thinking about getting mental assistance because I thought that I was loosing it. Thank you again. I appreciate the posts.
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Hello
I found that talking to yourself is a major motivation for blogging, check my post please :)
Thanks for the article, ( Crazy ) is the label I got thanks to my really IGNORANT friend because of this, which really hurts.
I problem solve this way, speaking aloud to myself, fairly often. It works. Writing helps too, but talking through a problem (especially when pacing to some degree) seems to help make all different kinds of relevant connections between facts that I would otherwise overlook through an internal monologue. Great article!
– web developer / university senior / father / husband / thinker
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wow been talking to myself since young, might just be the smartest guy around :)
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Since I’m working on psychological research that is about to provide scientific evidence that internal dialogue is a good strategy to relief stress I’m very happy finding people who confirm my hypothesis!
I always and have always talked to myself.Well not my self .My inner god.
Obviously when no one is around for fear of embarrassment.
It’s strange we are made to feel we are losing the plot or something?
Going insane is what most people would think?
I’m intelligent,hold down a very good job,and I think I have common sence than most people,and yes I talk to myself.
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Okay ,so um I am 17 and I am an adopted kid. When I was around 6 I moved with my parents to Dubai, no they worked 24/7 and came at night. I used to be alone in one room (locked from outside), I used to stare at walls or sit at one corner for the whole day just literally sitting. It was like this for around 4 years . Then some of my relatives (man) came here for a job, he tried to sexually assault me.(it had a huge impact on my life) I was scared . Then I learned that I was an adopted kid( my biological mum and dad had me, divorced and both threw me away ,resulting un my aunt adopting me ) , I felt angry , useless , worthless. I talk to myself since I was 12 . I talk as if someone is there or I am being interviewed etc. When I am around others I just talk in my head and when someone calls me . it taked me time to actually understand or focus at that person. I do have a lot of suicidal thought (but am a Muslim so its kind of prohibited and I don’t want to go to hell ). I feel like I am going mad or insane. I hate being around people, I hat taking pictures generally . AM I GOING MAD.
Help please
Help, I talk to myself regardless where I am, to solve problems almost all problems, I write really messy, however can write ok if I take my time, I don’t like to take my time it frustrates me. I have been currently trying to be regular like a normal person, they don’t do those things, I have been searching for ans. All my life,and even more recent did some research in the areas of cognitive thing and poss. Dyslexia, some depression,low self esteem bc I’m 40 and have had 40 jobs,also bc I talk to myself,and they think im crazy for carrying work note books . Also have ptsd I also am currently trying to work on my time management skill which is very frustrating to me, I’ve almost got it done 6 months later. And social situations make me very nervous, Judging from the research I’ve done these are the issues I have. Can you give me an inexpensive way to better myself thanks, amy
I work by myself cleaning a office. I regularly talk to myself. I pretend I have a twin and talk to her. I visualize her. I don’t hear her talking to me. Don’t think I’m crazy. Think I’m lonely. Also talk to my deceased father. When I’m at home I don’t do it. 😁