[HN Gopher] The Surprising Benefits of Talking Out Loud to Yourself
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       The Surprising Benefits of Talking Out Loud to Yourself
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2024-11-21 20:40 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
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       | greyface- wrote:
       | See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
        
         | RHSeeger wrote:
         | That was my first thought; lots of developers talk out loud to
         | themselves when working through code.
        
       | semitones wrote:
       | When I need to understand a personal experience, or digest a
       | problem I'm working on, I often talk to myself and record a voice
       | memo. I rarely listen back to the voice memos (although they are
       | super nice to have as they serve as a historical archive of my
       | states and progression as a person), the main benefit is in
       | having the conversation with myself.
       | 
       | By forcing myself to verbalize what I am thinking and feeling, I
       | always end up better understanding it. If I am dealing with an
       | unpleasant situation, I can always find a way to feel better
       | about it, or create a plan that I believe in, if I talk about it
       | with myself.
       | 
       | Really, it's a form of therapy - it's not too dissimilar from the
       | exercise one engages in with a therapist, except of course in
       | this case you don't have a professional that can react to your
       | outputs. Instead, the onus is on you to check yourself and self-
       | process, which is very powerful (although of course there are
       | limits to what you can achieve in a vacuum).
       | 
       | I find it effective to first elaborate upon my perspectives this
       | way to myself, and only then share them with friends afterwards,
       | such that they get a more cohesive presentation.
        
       | fouronnes3 wrote:
       | Over the summer I tried meditation. It was a great experience,
       | but actually surprisingly difficult. A few weeks ago I decided to
       | stop my regular meditation practice, and instead embrace kinda
       | the opposite, and what's described in the article. Go on walks
       | and fully immerse myself in my own thoughts. If meditation
       | minimizes something, this is maximizing it - but without
       | distractions. I find that long walks are sometimes very
       | productive for introspection, and this is an experiment leaning
       | into that.
        
       | iolo wrote:
       | I've started recording loom videos of myself walking through
       | features. It's turned into a great way of testing my own code as
       | subtle errors are more obvious when you've effectively set up a
       | spotlight and pointed a camera at what you've built. The
       | voiceover on top them acts as a form of rubber duck for UX.
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | Another benefit is, people give you a little extra space on the
       | train.
        
         | MrHamburger wrote:
         | Especially when you will condition your brain to automatically
         | start genuinely laughing on command.
        
       | OutOfHere wrote:
       | In this way, when you finally go crazy, you won't then feel so
       | bad for talking out loud to yourself.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | Talking to yourself is old game. The new game is talking to an
       | LLM.
        
       | trallnag wrote:
       | How does that work in an open office with colleagues all around
       | you?
        
         | PeterWhittaker wrote:
         | It depends if you are really talking aloud or just sort of hum-
         | mumble vocalizing.
         | 
         | I shared an office with a good friend until his office was
         | ready. When he moved, he said he would miss the buzzy hum
         | coming from my chair.
        
       | pier25 wrote:
       | I very often have an internal dialogue going on but for some
       | reason when I'm walking my dog I start talking out loud. Not
       | loud, I whisper, but my jaw moves etc.
       | 
       | During our walks I rarely encounter other people but when it
       | happens I feel a bit embarrassed. Maybe I should just put some
       | headphones and just pretend I'm in a call like the writer in the
       | article (Ellie Shoja).
        
       | geor9e wrote:
       | No thank you, I am busy rotating a cow in my mind.
        
       | patrickhogan1 wrote:
       | I talk out loud to myself all the time, especially..
       | 
       | "undefined is not a function. WTF!"
        
       | hn72774 wrote:
       | I am used to the term "thinking out loud." Isn't talking always
       | "out loud?"
       | 
       | Which is the correct usage of the term?
        
       | antisthenes wrote:
       | Talking to yourself sometimes is the only way you can get an
       | intelligent conversation going.
        
       | nunez wrote:
       | I've talked to myself since I was a kid. It helps me think
       | through things.
       | 
       | Nowadays, I record these "self-conversations" into my Day One
       | journal so I can look back on them later. It also makes me look
       | less crazy when I'm doing this while walking outside or
       | something.
       | 
       | That said, I check off several of the boxes that the author
       | outlined in the article: introverted, enjoys spending lots of
       | time alone, sisters but no brothers and rocky relationship with
       | my dad.
       | 
       | I'm glad this is getting attention.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-21 23:02 UTC)