I agree with the main points this post is making. However, I do want to disagree with something that I think is more tangential.
In a real time conversation with another person, I don’t think that you need to pause for dozens of seconds of silent thinking if you don’t “know the answer”. Instead, you can think out loud. Whatever the inner dialog would be during the silent thinking, you can verbalize it. Something like this: “Hm, I’m not immediately sure. That’s an interesting question. Let’s think about it. My first thought is that I’m confused about X...”
I’m not saying that it’s always appropriate to think out loud. Sometimes it’s more appropriate to sit and think silently.
I agree with the main points this post is making. However, I do want to disagree with something that I think is more tangential.
In a real time conversation with another person, I don’t think that you need to pause for dozens of seconds of silent thinking if you don’t “know the answer”. Instead, you can think out loud. Whatever the inner dialog would be during the silent thinking, you can verbalize it. Something like this: “Hm, I’m not immediately sure. That’s an interesting question. Let’s think about it. My first thought is that I’m confused about X...”
I’m not saying that it’s always appropriate to think out loud. Sometimes it’s more appropriate to sit and think silently.