I also don’t have aphantasia and can relate to that description a lot.
When I was eight or nine we had to draw our family at school. My friend glanced over and said: Doesn’t your mom wear glasses? I didn’t know and really had no way to figure this out except by going home and looking at my mom (who has been wearing glasses all day and every day since she was a kid).
On one cognitive test I scored 99.9th percentile in logical thinking and 23rd percentile in image memory (which explains why I get lost everywhere). My coworkers think I’m a genius, my wife thinks I’m retarded.
I also read books like Ross does and never understood my fellow nerds obsession with maps, which seem like a complete waste of a page to me.
When I visually remember people I almost always remember a foto of them which I have seen many times. I dislike new places but moving to a new apartment is basically no problem—after a week or two I have forgotten the old place.
I used to think that other people experience life as a series of anecdotes, while I just don’t. Though over the years I did figure out how to tell anecdotes (preparation).
I guess I can count myself lucky that in my case this is not as extreme as for Blake Ross.
I also don’t have aphantasia and can relate to that description a lot.
When I was eight or nine we had to draw our family at school. My friend glanced over and said: Doesn’t your mom wear glasses? I didn’t know and really had no way to figure this out except by going home and looking at my mom (who has been wearing glasses all day and every day since she was a kid).
On one cognitive test I scored 99.9th percentile in logical thinking and 23rd percentile in image memory (which explains why I get lost everywhere). My coworkers think I’m a genius, my wife thinks I’m retarded.
I also read books like Ross does and never understood my fellow nerds obsession with maps, which seem like a complete waste of a page to me.
When I visually remember people I almost always remember a foto of them which I have seen many times. I dislike new places but moving to a new apartment is basically no problem—after a week or two I have forgotten the old place.
I used to think that other people experience life as a series of anecdotes, while I just don’t. Though over the years I did figure out how to tell anecdotes (preparation).
I guess I can count myself lucky that in my case this is not as extreme as for Blake Ross.