Are you a visual, pattern, or facts thinker?

Post Reply New Topic

I see a pattern trend. discerning patterns makes it easier to figure out life, to a certain extent.

Almost anything but verbal.


It's possible for me to use various thinking styles at the same time and on real time -- if my EF is at it's better state/best.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

I'm very much a facts thinker. Although I do okay in visual and am kinda bad at pattern.

But I primary am a facts thinker.

Edna3362, verbal is the worst. It goes in one ear and out the other. Or I just can't make sense of what I'm hearing.

I'm a mix of the three, plus a little verbal thinking too. Sometimes I think in "concepts" sort of that aren't any of them.

^^hiya COTU welcome to our club

Those of you who are pattern thinkers, are you able to explain what that is actually like? I am a pretty extreme visual thinker and I can also understand from conversations with my friend what verbal thinking is like. But I am struggling to understand what pattern thinking might actually "look" like.

I can only speak for myself, as I don't know how the others who identified with the pattern thinking mindset think.

Here's the plan to a building I designed almost ten years ago. Of course I relate to it visually because it's an image, but in planning this building I have to account for a large range of issues which have to be solved in one single gesture. So looking at the shapes, I imagine measurements, materials, light conditions, people's sense of privacy, etc. all at once, and I start to lay this big puzzle inside my head where visual things (shapes) are connected to emotional things (moods) which are connected to rational/logical things (numbers) which are connected to my explanation to the client (words). The way these things come together harmoniously so I can draw the floor plan makes me convinced that several patterns (of living, sensing, being, etc.) come together as one, almost as if a sentence and a drawing say the same thing, only in different media. When two things "say" the same thing, they repeat. I suppose my pattern thinking is built on recognising such recurring elements, as patterns per se are characterised by ordered repetition.

That's the best way I can explain it.

Sandpiper: My experience of the world is total chaos. Every single new input comes rushing in and means nothing in and of itself and I am completely and totally confused. I cope as best I can and ask questions, which are often considered "dumb." Being 64 now, I have gathered up together enough patterns so that I don't struggle with it on a daily basis. But if something changes, I have to experience it and observe the chaos over and over and over again and then suddenly, without my being aware of any processing (although I spend a lot of time thinking about it) it all makes sense and I see the pattern. Once I have the pattern, I recognize it instantly from then on and it takes no time to process at all.

A simple example: In my work, I have to process a ton of paperwork to justify and support a person's need for services. Periodically, the agency changes how it wants these papers put together, increases the number of documents requested, and changes the formats, drops some documents, adds others. When the agency first implements these changes, it can take me hours longer to process the paperwork. One change resulted in an increase from two hours to prepare to 8 hours to prepare. I struggle with each item, making sure I don't leave anything out. I struggle with where/how to get each document and which to leave out. It makes my brain physically hurt and exhausts me. I come to dread this task. Recently, I have noticed I can put together one of these packages in about an hour with no stress. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??? I have no idea. But what was once chaos and difficult is now easy and smooth. And I barely have to think about it at all. The new pattern is in place and I am fine until the next time they change it.

I realize that some people would attribute this to just getting faster and better at a task, but this is something different. For one thing, my colleagues do not have this lag phase in comprehension. For another it doesn't feel like learning something...it feels like chaos and suddenly clear.

^^^I hope you have lovely vacations in the future. It's a hard business processing applications.

I don't have the patience that you possess.

Thanks for trying to explain it. I still don't really understand it. Maybe it is one of those things that you can only really understand if you experience it for yourself. Maybe my brain is trying to build a visual image of the concept and it just can't.

I am a hybrid visual/patterns thinker. Sometimes I don't believe my eyes so I rely on touch.

A little bit of both.

Am a facts thinker, but do it visually.

I can visualize a map of the ancient Roman Empire and then superimpose it on a map of the modern nations of the Mediterranean, and then I can tick off which countries were in the Roman Empire and which out.

^^^^ that is fantastic!

I can sort of do the above......especially when I research and concentrate well.

One has to know, say, that certain parts of a certain Asiatic region was Roman—and certain parts weren’t. It can get pretty complicated.