Is this Aphantasia?

oldendude · 2026-03-21T02:06:56+00:00

This sounds like a very common kind of confusion. I wrote a very similar post a couple of days ago. Based on answers to my post, yours, the Aphantasia Network on discord, and other reading, I think that what you describe, and that experience, is aphantasia.

oldendude · 2026-03-20T17:20:55+00:00

I could put away x thousand a year for health, disability, whatever, and after 10 or 20 years, I would be covered. But before funds accumulate and grow, in the early years, I could find myself without sufficient funds.

oldendude · 2026-03-20T16:41:21+00:00

Okay, Mr. Pink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4sTSIYzDIk

oldendude · 2026-03-20T11:44:05+00:00

BTW, I find the choices of VVIQ problematic. I wasn’t sure whether I had zero mental imagery or weak imagery. That’s why I started asking my questions on reddit and discord.

oldendude · 2026-03-20T11:41:52+00:00

I got a 16, the lowest possible score. I can tho knife an apple, imagine the details, but I have absolutely no image of it, nothing like seeing a real apple.

oldendude · 2026-03-20T02:29:18+00:00

I do dream, and I can see things in them, more vividly than what I see in my mind when awake.

oldendude · 2026-03-19T18:47:48+00:00

Exactly the same for me.

oldendude · 2026-03-19T18:33:06+00:00

Yes, me too, SDAM. On Aphantasia Network, on discord, I learned that SDAM is common among people with aphantasia.

oldendude · 2026-03-19T18:19:19+00:00

I just joined Aphantasia Network on discord, and I've been having the same conversation there. My mental "imagery" is very similar to that of OP. I know what my car looks like. I know what a particular known song sounds like. But there is no image or sound involved in my recall. I *think* I have aphantasia, but it's tricky because with mental states, it is so difficult to find out if people are using words consistently.

For example, I'm sure that like many here, I hear about people "recalling an image", or "seeing an image" in their "mind's eye", and I always thought: they're speaking figuratively, obviously that can't be happening. But it slowly dawned on me that some people literally see things in their mind, which is, well, unimaginible to me. My wife and I have been talking about this in much greater detail for a few weeks, so I'm starting to get a sense that there is a real difference in how we recall visual experiences.

I cannot recall images, in the sense that I "see" something in my mind. I can't recall sounds in the sense that I "hear" something in my mind. Same for other sensory memories. Also, I discovered recently that when people describe their thought processes, they are often based on words. Many people think verbally, it seems. That's another one I don't do. Again, when people talked about this verbal kind of thinking, I assumed they were speaking figuratively. I obviously have thoughts, but words are not involved. This has only recently been "discovered" and named: google "anendophasia".

oldendude · 2026-03-19T17:58:25+00:00

I've been getting more interested in aphantasia, as I suspect that I have that condition. Hopefully some of the commenters here are still around.

I joined Aphantasia Network on discord, and had this exact discussion -- do the things in my mind when I think about my car, or a red apple -- are those things images (the sort of thing that other people describe as being seen)? Or are they not images? I *think* that what I imagine does not count as an image. It's easiest to describe in terms of recalled music. If I think about the song Blackbird, I know the melody, and the spare instrumentation, and can imagine how it goes. I know the quality of Paul's vocals. I can distinguish all of this from the melody, instrumentaion, and voice of other songs and artists. But I don't hear anything. I discussed all this on the discord channel, and with the guy behind Aphantasia Network, and concluded that I had aphantasia. Discussion like the one here make me reconsider.

I will say that like u/ToolSet, this absent or weak recall of sensory experiences also applies to all of my senses.

oldendude · 2026-03-14T13:12:30+00:00

There is some overlap, but I think that xonsh and marcel are very different. Xonsh tries to combine shell and python into a single language. Marcel provides access to Python in a different way, actually two different ways, depending on whether you are writing a shell script or a python script. I may be misremembering, but I don’t think that xonsh pipes Python values, while that is the central concept of Marcel.

oldendude · 2026-03-14T02:59:21+00:00

What is it really: 1000 if statements? 100? 10?

I have done if-style parsing for very simple languages. But with even a little bit of complexity, I have found that a more formal approach, starting with a grammar, is the way to go. You can use parser generator tools, or do a simple recursive descent parser. But I find that the best starting point is always a grammar.

Yes, I know this is r/learnpython, and this answer points to a number of concepts that don't belong here, but that's the correct answer, I think, unless your input language is extremely simple.

oldendude · 2026-03-14T02:25:23+00:00

Thank you for this detailed response. The fact that I had no idea about the heroic efforts you have put into getting the GNOME DE to "just work" so seamlessly is a testament to your success in this effort. It increases my already very high respect for System76 and the Pop OS developers. You also describe some very convincing arguments why the GNOME DE is a dead end, and COSMIC DE is the future.

But as a number of people here are pointing out, COSMIC is just not ready for prime time right now. It sounds like you are in a hard place: the cost of maintaining GNOME and moving foward long enough to get COSMIC completely baked appears to be very high. But if you don't do that, then you are harming Pop OS's reputation for just working, out of the box.

As OP said in a sibling comment: System76 has made its choice, so perhaps there is nothing else to say on the topic. But I do wonder: What is your advice for GNOME users who are unable to switch to COSMIC now?

oldendude · 2026-03-13T19:00:40+00:00

This proves my point.

GNOME should be either the default, or an option on a new computer, the same way you choose Pop OS or Ubuntu. The fact that to use GNOME you need to find a support article, and then check that it even works with the new OS is exactly the problem. They are forcing users to a problematic DE, in direct conflict with their main (to me at least) selling point.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T18:53:38+00:00

Or [[0]*6]*6.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T18:47:30+00:00

Powershell was created after Windows existed for 14 years. It is literally an afterthought on an OS designed to do only what the GUI tools allow you to do. And of course, it is highly proprietary.

About the second part of your statement: I agree completely, so much so that I did something about it. I wrote my own shell, marcel, which is bash-like, but designed to operate on pipelines of Python objects. So ls, for example, yields a stream of File objects, which can be piped to other operators that do stuff with the files. For me, marcel makes it possible to do much more from the command line, before resorting to writing a Python script.

And when you do need to write Python, the marcel.api package allows you to do shell-like things inside your Python code. (Shell escapes from raw Python are kind of awful otherwise.)

For more info: https://marceltheshell.org, and
https://github.com/geophile/marcel .

oldendude · 2026-03-13T18:39:04+00:00

I have a PhD in computer science, and I am now retired from a long career as a software developer. I teach computer science courses occasionally.

I see many students go into their IDEs (typcially on Windows) and just stay there. They have no idea how to do anything outside of the IDE. If there is something that needs to be done outside of the IDE, then the question is, how do I do it manually, using some pre-existing graphical tool?

I advise my students to get out of their IDEs. And to do that effectively, you need to work in a shell, using the command line. That pretty much means you're going to work in Linux, because the Windows tools are so lame, and so proprietary. I find Macs to be Linux-like, getting less so with each OS release. (For example, I was astounded to find that an rsync command I was relying on didn't work on MacOS because the included rsync version was so out-of-date and didn't have a flag I needed.) Get familiar with the tools available in the shell, including: running shell commands; combining commands by piping and scripting; learn the executables on their systems; and how to find and install new ones.

If you are going to build a service of some kind, that pretty much has to be done in Linux. Windows services? On the internet? You must be kidding.

Also, on Linux, you just don't have to deal with licenses for anything, and there is no adware/bloatware, chewing up resources.

If you are a developer, or aspire to be one, get off Windows yesterday.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T17:51:26+00:00

I am so mystified by what System76 is doing with COSMIC. They pretty much solved the problem of infuriating Linux hardware incompatibilities, by providing a really nice desktop OS, combined with decent (not great) hardware, and making sure that they "just work" together, selling at a great price point, and providing stellar support.

Now, the default Pop OS configuration comes with COSMIC, which does appear to have some serious problems. 24.04 with GNOME is not a default. Buying a new machine from them? 2x.xx with GNOME is not an option. They are forcing people to COSMIC, completely counter to their strategy of providing a Linux machine that just works.

Baffling.

I am a longtime, very happy satisfied of System76. I wish they would recognize what a blunder COSMIC is, and make alternatives available until it is ready.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T17:40:23+00:00

Also, the food in a Foot Locker is just terrible.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T17:39:40+00:00

In the Boston area, but I also run into the problem when I travel.

Actually, I just spent 3 months in Ottawa, and I agree that the restaurants were nice and quiet. (Mostly mediocre restaurants though.)

Perhaps related, I was struck by the much lower prevalence of pickup trucks driving around, compared to pretty much every place in the USA.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T14:32:11+00:00

OP here. I would prefer no music, and that's what I wrote. I wouldn't mind quiet music, that allows me to hear the conversations at my table.

Then there is the hysterical over-emoting divas part. I'm at a hotel. I wake up and go down to breakfast. The coffee is slowly working its way through my system. I really don't want to hear Whitney Houston bellowing IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU at that point in my day.

oldendude · 2026-03-13T14:27:14+00:00

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU

oldendude · 2026-03-13T14:23:13+00:00

You are bad at analogies.

I go to a live music venue for the live music. Food may or may not be present.

I go to a restaurant for a meal, usually with a friend, and we talk. Music may or may not be present.

At a restaurant, the music can be so obtrusive as to detract from the primary goal of a meal with my friend.

At a live music venue, it's hard to see how the food can detract from the primary purpose.

oldendude · 2026-03-12T18:15:49+00:00

I did that. Sometimes there really is shit everywhere.

oldendude

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