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Comment by 1auralynn | Hacker News Reader

I think some people are just wired to be super verbal/auditory and don't have as strong pattern or visual/symbolic skills.

For example, a friend of mine who is a fantastic poet - VERY skilled verbally - told me that she was one of those kids who had to move their lips when reading, and she never actually learned to read the way I do (where words are just visual symbols that form patterns and have not that much to do with sound - I can read very quickly), she just trained herself to stop moving her lips. Just something I've always found interesting.

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I looked at your VR expression platform (not yet tested in VR) I see it as a kind of non-linear language experience, where you pick objects and conjure them to express yourself, that I would have greatly enjoy when I was a kid instead of reading/writing. (I'm not yet sure the UI is still mature enough to not get in the way of the thoughts).

Snapchat with its way of communication with pictures also got this right.

My inner feeling is that we new technology we should be able to alleviate the need to speak in a serialized/sequenced form between people that was kind of imposed by nature and exchange mental pictures directly.

Keep up the good work :)

Hey, thanks! Yeah, my main talent is translating written information into symbolic/visual content/mental models... One of my goals is to allow people who have different brain styles access to the same models. Particularly in biology, where the prerequisite to understanding is to first learn a bunch of jargon - I think this is totally unecessary and shuts a lot of brilliant people out.

>I think some people are just wired to be super verbal/auditory and don't have as strong pattern or visual/symbolic skills.

I think it depends on the context. I internally vocalize when I read and I'm not entirely sure how anyone is able to not do so. To me reading fast means hearing myself talk fast, which I just can't comprehend. But it also means reading for me is hard because I need to take breaks in reading to visualize what I'm reading.

But I'm also a graphic designer so I certainly have strong pattern and visual skills. But when I'm designing I'm not trying to comprehend words on a page, so it's quite easy.

Agreed, it's definitely a spectrum - there are times I'm reading and I can definitely hear myself vocalizing. But, when I get really deep into a book, that voice almost completely goes away.

Another interesting note is that I have a VERY hard time reading poetry in my normal reading style, and have to stop and pretty much sound it out in order to comprehend it.

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