I think that's also what I'm concluding, at least for myself.

My lack of visualization meant that I learned different ways to process information. I think some of these have let me work with abstract reasoning in a much more flexible way. I also very quickly recognize abstract patterns amongst wildly different domains (witness the less-than-a-moment's thought that eventually became the schwartzian transform).

Also, since I don't "picture" a conversation I'm having, I'm terribly efficient with word puns. I "hear" all similar words, and all different meanings, for each word in a conversation. I suspect that people who visualize an actual dog when I say "dog" would have a harder time doing that.

Like a blind person getting better hearing in exchange, my mental "blindness" has created a number of very useful skills.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

In reply to •Re^5: How to abate the Ubiquitous Fear of Programming by merlyn
in thread How to abate the Ubiquitous Fear of Programming by Velaki

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