Ask HN: Do you have Aphantasia?
Hello HN,
I am writing this post about aphantasia as I have it and very recently discovered what it even was and that it is not "normal". There is so little research done about this subject that we don't have any idea of the origins of it, why some people are affected, if it is developed at a later stage in life or born with (I feel like I developed mine) or what % of the population has it.
So I started doing a little investigating of my own and asked my close circle of friends and colleagues if they had it.
Out of about 20 people I questioned (all are either working as devs or designers), not a single one had it. Makes sense for the designers, but I would have thought that developers would have a higher chance of having it, for some reason.
My first intent was to try and find a correlation between aphantasia and being a developer. The way I see it programming has always allowed me to materialize things that I could think of but never "imagine" or "visualize". I have always been passionate about code since I touched a computer in my life for the first time. I could create without having a need to be creative, through _repetitive trial and error_ (strong emphasis on repetitive), where a designer, for instance, could simply visualize then apply, maybe add a little shine here and there and be done.
As my sample pool of 20 people was quite small and not very representative I figured it would be a good idea to ask you guys about it, maybe even get some anecdotes, life repercussions, and whatnot out of it...
So here I am. Do you have Aphantasia HN?
PS: Sorry if this sounds confusing, my limited vocabulary hardly allows me to express these very specific topics... Also sorry if this is too off-topic for HN.