Linear thinking

I am trying to think in a linear way at present.

Until quite recently, I thought that most people thought in approximately the same kind of way, although some people have brains that are structured differently or have been damaged.

Then I found out that, apparently, not everyone has constant conversations with his/her self. I also found out that it is possibly good to express thoughts in words. There has been some research: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/talking-to-yourself-brain-memory-search-find_n_1447211.html (although it is important to note that it is just one study).

Some people on Twitter were discussing writing, particularly writing by hand but also typing on a digital device. Simon Gough wrote a post about what he thought: Communication Inertia. I find that writing can help me to remember things. The physical act of writing seems to place the memory of the words better. If I write down a shopping list and leave it at home, I still manage to remember everything that was on the list. If I try to remember from a pre-planned but not written list, I forget some things. The act of writing helps me to focus.

I am curious about how other people think. There are certainly things that I would really like to understand how other people do them or cope with them. They can act in ways that I find very puzzling, and sometimes scary. Someone asked on Twitter last night ‘with whom would you like to swap minds?’ The responses were rather interesting. I thought about it briefly. Those whom I considered really interesting also have something about which I might not want to know more, or would be very dangerous for me. Of course, one would need to retain something of one’s own mind to see and appreciate having someone else’s mind.

Is linear thinking normal or a learned skill?

Some years ago, I discovered that not everyone has a 3D model of information structures in their head. We were discussing the visual representation of files and folders in directories in Microsoft Windows. I had thought everyone tried to achieve of 2D model of the 3D model in their heads when organising their digital information, but apparently this is not universal.

Making things requires a different way of thinking.I have been trying to get back into painting. I last painted in January or Fenruary 2009, and have a mental block about doing it again, possibly because I was very ill when I last did it and do not want to remember how I felt then. However, it is important that I do because it is a form of expression that I need to express things that I cannot express as well (or, perhaps, at all) in words. Listening to music has always been one way of switching my brain away from words and into thinking visually. Sounds have shapes, visual volume, mass and texture.

The image above is of a lino block with lino cutting tools on it. I decided that I should try making lino prints, prompted by friends announcing an open prints show at their gallery this summer. I really want to do a course on photo-etching or photolithography (I skipped most of the printing introduction as an undergrad) but cannot afford that at present. Linocut prints have always attracted me and I did some way back in primary school (it would be banned by Health & Safety these days, I suppose), and it is a form of printing that does not require noxious chemicals nor a printing press.

So, now I am trying to think of what I could draw on the lino. It is so long since I thought in black-and-white and in lines that it is difficult. If you have any ideas about what you would like me to depict, do say!