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Comment by fzeroracer | Hacker News Reader

For me, that's never been true at all. Imagine your thoughts being like a barrel full of fish. Vocalizing your thoughts is then akin to reaching down into that barrel and plucking out the exact fish you were looking for.

Now if you wanted to describe the the color and species of said fish, it's easier when you're holding it rather than attempting to do so while it's swimming around with every other fish.

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I'd say it's more like one fish jumped in your arms and you start descriping it when it was the thought coming into your focus and and not your focus choosing the thought.

You can of course reiterate and sort your knowledge by thinking about it if there is a reason.

If you just think around when you are not trying to solve a problem you are just playing with your mind without any or much of a result.

Paradoxically, if you want to find something, it helps if you say it, so its easier to find the fish if you're already talking about it.

https://theweek.com/articles/476117/talking-yourself-secret-...

Makes sense. Our brain is an interconnected mess that self activates different path of neurons. So if you try to remember where you put your keys, saying the word, looking at an image of keys or hearing junbling keys might lead to the memory of where you put your keys.

I regularly feel similar to OP. It's like I think the "concept" very quickly/immediately, and then a split second later I vocalise it. I then usually think something like "I know, I already thought that" or "I don't need to say it", as a kind of automatic criticism of my own thought process.

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