I’ve noticed that my mind goes blank if I ever “stop to think”. I thought it had something to do with my concentration, but the other day, I had a revelation (while talking).
I talk to think!
It makes perfect sense.
- When learning, I commit things to memory and make connections much faster if I speak them aloud (and write them down)
- I have a bad habit of blurting things out as soon as an idea clicks, sometimes while someone else is still talking. I’ve gotten much better at reining this in over the years.
- My best friendships are with people who I constantly share ideas with over chai; we can talk for hours. (Corollary – I find it hard to spend time with folks who don’t respect good conversation)
- I have been accused of being a scatterbrain, of flip-flopping between opposing views just to annoy people, of being a contrarian – even though I don’t do/am any of these things. I can flip-flop a lot, but that’s the point I’m making: I AM LITERALLY THINKING OUT LOUD ALL, GODDAMIT!
One of the benefits of being a talk-to-think kinda person is that I make a great bouncing board for ideas! Exploring the depths of an idea, or going wide to see perspectives not considered have often led to useful developments for myself and others.
I’ve found that that thinking out loud (or in my case, thinking) also encourages emotional security and intellectual freedom. After all, most people don’t feel comfortable sharing their inner monologues.
One of the downsides is that when I am blindsided by something and need to respond immediately, I might need a second to think, or take a roundabout path to communicating what’s in my brain. What has helped me is to speak more slowly, and really focus on using my words well. Improving my vocabulary1 has also helped, because specific words help me communicate the specific ideas I want to.
Great article on this topic: https://www.fastcompany.com/919234/do-you-talk-think-or-think-talk And another, in a leadership context: https://fractio.nl/2015/07/10/think-talk-leadership/
- Meme formats, emoji, GIFs and urban slang are also pretty useful communication tools in this regard. They have the ability to specifically communicate an idea. Use with caution depending on context, obvs. ↩︎
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