In almost every interview I gave at the last several companies I worked for, I'd start with "This may feel a bit odd, but with this coding problem, I'd appreciate if you spoke through your problem solving. If it helps, pretend like I am your intern. Good ideas, bad ideas, pros and cons of whatever you're considering, it's all valuable information for me to learn a bit about how you approach problems."
I feel like being explicit like this put candidates at a bit more ease than having them try to suss out what the interviewer is expecting from them implicitly (and I know there are many interviewers that will auto-veto any candidate with the audacity to suggest a possibly imperfect approach).
In some cases, it certainly can help. But it doesn't help for deep thoughts or when innovative, creative ideas are needed.
I found out speaking the steps out loud helps especially in new confusing working steps, for example: tying a complex node, or follow the steps/work of other people without explicit instructions. In such situations, speaking out loud help me remember the steps much faster (simply repetition through many pathways), and also help to detect/correct spatial/sequential mistakes. It also helps enormously if one needs to work with/teach someone else.
Witnessing a candidate’s thought process is probably the most valuable part of the interview process for me. Nothing else comes close. Just let me listen/watch you solve problems.
I wonder if this may be related to anendophasia, the absence of an inner voice. Apparently it has an influence on self-reflection and verbal working memory.
I have aphantasia so anendophasia sounds like such a nightmare to me, though I imagine those so have it would likely feel the opposite of me. I've met some folks in the past who I'd suspect have anendophasia, but I'm not sure how I'd ever bring that up without coming across as uncouth.
Anyone with anendophasia care to opine on their experience?
"Free association" in psychoanalysis just asks people to let themselves speak, to fall into their speech, let it unfold - but it is very, very hard to do, because what you say tends to not be what you want to say. You want to avoid certain things, you can see your chain of speech leading up ahead to somewhere you don't want to go. So you stop yourself, or resist, and then what you are saying is not at all free but strained, hedging, tense and anxious.
I'm not the OP, but I think everyone might have a different definition of what "audible inner monologue" mean.
For example, I don't talk to myself in "monologue". But I can close my eyes or stare at the screen and visualize the solutions. The words that I usually tell myself during that are "what?", "why?", "strange!", "really",... not a monologue or sentences.
That's my impression too, that my thoughts are a hybrid, where I'll think in a rapid sequence of whole concepts and visual flashes, and then summarize that in my inner voice "for the record", as a jumping-off point for the next batch of thoughts. But I don't have much control over this, as my inner voice is hard to shut up for any length of time, always giving a running narrative.
The author says they could narrate their own thought process out loud.
I couldn’t do that. I have no insight into my thought processes whatsoever. There are no semantic (or any other) processes to witness. It’s complete crickets at all times…
My wife is the opposite - constant chatter in her head. And she can trace every thought exactly. (No idea how people like her can focus or even function!)
We focus/function via the inner monologue. It doesn't just do its own thing while we're trying to focus or get something done, it walks through the issue and comes up with solutions and then criticizes them and iterates, and as far as we're concerned, that's us solving the problem.
I am such a person and I've always done 'chain of thought' in a notepad in order to think through complex things, well before LLMs were a thing. There are certainly tasks I can 'one-shot' but I've learned from experience that for some problems that just results in me focusing on irrelevant things.
Curious whether the lack of audible inner monologue is a benefit for you?
I feel like I'm the opposite, where most of my thinking is done in inner English, which feels slow. I.e. as opposed to instantly realizing the result of deep subconscious processing or something, I usually go the slow language way, if you get what I mean.
We use this in my science education platform: we make students talk out loud about what they're thinking. Not a chatbot, but guided inquiry that's designed to make them actually mentally engage with what they're seeing
I feel like being explicit like this put candidates at a bit more ease than having them try to suss out what the interviewer is expecting from them implicitly (and I know there are many interviewers that will auto-veto any candidate with the audacity to suggest a possibly imperfect approach).
I found out speaking the steps out loud helps especially in new confusing working steps, for example: tying a complex node, or follow the steps/work of other people without explicit instructions. In such situations, speaking out loud help me remember the steps much faster (simply repetition through many pathways), and also help to detect/correct spatial/sequential mistakes. It also helps enormously if one needs to work with/teach someone else.
Not Everybody Has an Inner Voice: Behavioral Consequences of Anendophasia - https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241243004
Anyone with anendophasia care to opine on their experience?
Aometimes it feels like a super power because it takes away the "starting anxiety" and makes everything a trivial sequence of "following simple steps"
For example, I don't talk to myself in "monologue". But I can close my eyes or stare at the screen and visualize the solutions. The words that I usually tell myself during that are "what?", "why?", "strange!", "really",... not a monologue or sentences.
I couldn’t do that. I have no insight into my thought processes whatsoever. There are no semantic (or any other) processes to witness. It’s complete crickets at all times…
My wife is the opposite - constant chatter in her head. And she can trace every thought exactly. (No idea how people like her can focus or even function!)
I feel like I'm the opposite, where most of my thinking is done in inner English, which feels slow. I.e. as opposed to instantly realizing the result of deep subconscious processing or something, I usually go the slow language way, if you get what I mean.
> but maybe it has some nuance?
> eh, I think I still don't care enough to click
> but maybe I could post a funny comment
> it doesn't sound that funny, and besides, HN doesn't usually like these sorts of comments
> okay, let's just read the next story
> unless
I think and chase alternate chains of thought way faster than i can speak.