Something I’ve noticed in this vein over the years is that the results of this sort of exercise depend on the output mode I’m using.
That is, I come out with different things when I’m writing a stream-of-consciousness journal entry than when I’m free-associating in speech than when I’m building a nodemap than when I’m writing fiction than when I’m writing poetry, all of which tell me different things about what’s going on in my head when I look at them.
Not mutually exclusive, or anything, just different… written SoC has more internal coherence than spoken, for example; I am more likely to stay with one subject for longer. Poetry does better at exploring connections that don’t make any sense to me… that is, it makes me realize that thing A is associated in my head with thing B, even when there doesn’t seem to be any content or structure to that association.
So often, when one mode isn’t getting me anywhere, I will switch modes—in particular, I will often switch to poetry when I’m struggling with thoughts that I seem to be actively skipping over. And sometimes I’ll just switch modes out of curiosity.
Also, different modes sometimes dovetail… I’ll come out with things in one mode that surprise me, and then work them through in a different mode.
OTOH, some modes just don’t mean anything to me at all. I like to draw, and I can sit down and let images just come out of my pencil, but the results fail to communicate anything to me about my own head. It seems likely that there’s some information there, but I haven’t been able to translate it.
Ditto for music, for example (though I have no actual skill there).
Something I’ve noticed in this vein over the years is that the results of this sort of exercise depend on the output mode I’m using.
That is, I come out with different things when I’m writing a stream-of-consciousness journal entry than when I’m free-associating in speech than when I’m building a nodemap than when I’m writing fiction than when I’m writing poetry, all of which tell me different things about what’s going on in my head when I look at them.
Not mutually exclusive, or anything, just different… written SoC has more internal coherence than spoken, for example; I am more likely to stay with one subject for longer. Poetry does better at exploring connections that don’t make any sense to me… that is, it makes me realize that thing A is associated in my head with thing B, even when there doesn’t seem to be any content or structure to that association.
So often, when one mode isn’t getting me anywhere, I will switch modes—in particular, I will often switch to poetry when I’m struggling with thoughts that I seem to be actively skipping over. And sometimes I’ll just switch modes out of curiosity.
Also, different modes sometimes dovetail… I’ll come out with things in one mode that surprise me, and then work them through in a different mode.
OTOH, some modes just don’t mean anything to me at all. I like to draw, and I can sit down and let images just come out of my pencil, but the results fail to communicate anything to me about my own head. It seems likely that there’s some information there, but I haven’t been able to translate it.
Ditto for music, for example (though I have no actual skill there).