Learn to Think Better: Tips from a Savant
The way he describes math and language is exactly the way I have described it to friends. My spelling is atrocious because I don't see the word a-t-r-o-c-i-o-u-s I see a gun black metal ball morphing into the head of a mace (slightly covered in slime) and moving towards me in a parabolic trajectory, which would make absolutely no sense to anyone else, but each of those attributes (gun black, ball, spikes, slime, parabolic movement) are like tags, or keys to a database that relate that word to other words. Movement = adjective, parabolic = quick decision, gun black = considered cold if said to others, slime = bad, spikes ~ ugly/pity, ball = others may disagree/personal opinion.
The hardest part for me is remembering people's names. I have to make unique picture for every single first name AND link it to a last name with another key, not as an active effort, but I know when it has happened. Learning to type was hard, until I started associating sequences of letters to their own "shapes" (more like micro movies).
When I'm thinking/working/talking/typing a minimum of 6 videos will play in my head (really fast) per thought. It goes waaaaayyyy up if I have an internal disagreement about something. Say somebody asked me whether I liked Starbucks or Tim Hortons more. Since I love both Starbucks and Tim Hortons my brain kind of does a tree of videos that face off against each other. First node would be
01"Better?" -> "impossible"
02"Branch: Define better?" -> "Speed, Cost, Service, Quality"
03"Speed Better?" -> "tilt Tim Hortons, except rush hour"
I could actually extend that example to about 60 or 70 lines, and for each line AT LEAST 2 videos would play in my minds eye. All 60 lines would take less than a second to calculate. I've developed the habit to look away (at the ground, say) from the person talking to me when this happens so that the conversation flows naturally.
Unlike the guy in the article, I have never really had a problem with reading body language.
"I could not do many of the things that most people take for granted, such as ... or deciphering a person’s body language, and only acquired these skills with much effort over time."
I'm in my thirties and I think I'll never learn to decipher a person's body language. Now that got me thinking if that makes me a genius or am I just hopeless?
Werid that his article popped up today. I was just watching some videos of David Tammet yesterday.
Here's the documentary about him that came out a few years ago: http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Boy-With-the-Incredible-B...
In it, he meets Kim Peek, counts cards, splits the hand twice and gets triple-blackjack, sets his PI record, learns Icelandic in a week, and many other things. Interesting show, not just about him, but other savant's too.
Are there any good tips for thinking better here? I'd like to request a summary of anyone who read it.