Funnily, before the "aphantasia" was a thing, I always thought that "not seeing things in my mind" and instead having just "vague geometrical images" was my superpower and maybe explained why it looks like I could think faster and more effortlessly than many of my peers during college and phd years. I thought maybe my brain didn't spend cycles on pictures and used them elsewhere. That idea was maybe influenced by vaguely recollecting (perhaps wrongly) an Einstein interview where he mentioned also having only vague geometrical images in his mind. When the term "aphantasia" was coined, I was really surprised that people with aphantasia started writing as if it was a handicap they had, as if they were diminished by lacked something that others have. Nowadays, it still trips me up a little to see it described as a 'condition', though I understand it and feel that it is probably a give and take - it is probably an enabler in some domains and a drag in others.
prismatix|1 year ago
I constantly got feedback on essays, "show -- don't tell". I remember a unit in school where they made us close our eyes while they told us a story and we had to visualize being in the story. I didn't realize that other kids didn't think the same way as me, so I just remember feeling like these exercises were pointless.
In a recent interview, I was collaborating with my interviewer who was visually imagining things in his head and explaining them to me. The interview was going rarher poorly and, once I explained that I didnt have the ability to visualize things and needed to write it down on paper, our conversation shifted and the interview went phenomenally better.
Being more open about my aphantasia has actually helped significantly, and I wish I had known about it as a kid.