What I do find surprising is that other people do not think in the same way. I find it hard to imagine a world where numbers and words are not how I experience them!
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me, which is why as a young child I thought of them as my 'friends.'
Opinions of language are as interesting as opinions of arithmetic.
But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
I can understand that there are those who can think and imagine the world without words, but I think that once you find the words that name your experience, then suddenly that experience becomes grounded, and you can use it and you can try to understand it.
So long as I confine my thoughts to my own ideas divested of words, I do not see how I can be easily mistaken.
It is inconceivable to me that a million or three million or half a million human beings will think and feel precisely the same way on any single subject.
I mean, every thought starts over, so every expression of a thought has to do the same. every accuracy has to be invented... I feel I am blundering in concepts too fine for me.
I love the idea of numerology, but I don't really believe in it. But I like thinking about what numbers convey.
There is something about the ability to externalize our thoughts and compare them with other people in a public way that is really transformative for the average person.
I realized that you could formulate theories about human and social phenomena in language and pictures and whatever you wanted on the computer, and you didn't have to go through this straitjacket, adding a lot of numbers.