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Comment by doctor_eval | Hacker News Reader

> Our research shows this process – mimicking human cognitive process of forming complete sentences in mind before articulating word by word

This is not how I work. Is there something wrong with me?

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Nor is it how I work, I think that's normal enough. I do have an idea of what I'm going to say before I say it, I think that's closer to what they meant. I think and speak in increments of ideas, not words.

> I think and speak in increments of ideas

extremely common among (but not unique to) people with ASD, those "increments of ideas" are called "gestalts".

https://kidtherapy.org/helpful-articles/what-is-gestalt-lang...

In some conversations, maybe it's easier to form complete sentences. In some others, the best we can do is: have a rough draft about what to say in mind and then refine it word by word while speaking.

You might not have an internal monologue. A lot of us don't, and the ones that do are equally shocked every time they find out. For what it's worth, I'm in the same boat—can form sentences, but why would I? It'd slow me down.

People who don't have inner monologues tend to assume that all that stuff is some form of analogy or metaphor. It's not. It's entirely literal.

Do you mean in a real time conversation?

Because I definitely dont "have an internal monologue about what I'm going to say" in the 100ms between when someone asks a casual question and I respond to it.

Yes, it is possible to maintain an internal monologue in real time conversation. That is one of the reasons why some people usually take longer than 100ms to respond.

Are you sure. It might not be the whole sentence, but I would find it hard to believe that in practice the way you speak or write is like

hello <think> May <think> be <think> I'll <think> go <think> get <think> break <think> fast

They probably do not mean people form entire sentences before expressing them, I am not aware of anybody doing that. I assume it refers to people first coming up with a global outline of what they want to say before they start speaking.

"Rem tene, verba sequentur" (you hold the matter, then words come) is largely "how it works".

You form logical ideas as you speak, as you speak your speech develops, so the translation is from ideas to sentences. It is not clear in which phase one would mentally form a complete sentence, nor why it should be relevant. You "see something [that makes sense]", then you describe it - iteratively.

You are probably pretty far from the LLM extreme, though, of thinking one token at a time.

Probably.

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