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When You Think Thoughts What Do You See

When you think thoughts — what do you actually see? Pictures? Words? A running commentary that won’t shut up? Nothing at all?

It took way too long to figure out that not everyone answers that question the same way. And not just because people have different opinions or different ideas. When people think, they literally experience their thoughts in completely different ways. Some people see vivid pictures and videos, or they see words, and some have an inner monologue that narrates every single thing they do all day long. And some people see absolutely nothing — they just have a thought and react.

This week on Thoughts Off The Stem, Justin Barone goes deep on one of the most fascinating realizations he’s had in a sesh — and it might just change how you see the people around you.

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Not Everyone Sees What You See

As a kid it seems obvious — we’re all learning the same math problem so we must be solving it the same way, right? We agree on something so we must have thought about it the same way. Makes sense until you actually talk to someone about how they think and realize their brain is doing something completely different from yours.

Justin thinks in pictures, words, videos, shapes and sometimes nothing at all — switching between them depending on what the conversation is about or what he’s feeling. Tell him a story and he’s visualizing every detail. Get him deep in thought and the lights go out completely — blank space, just presence and clarity. Get him emotional and suddenly it’s all words, big feelings turning into sentences in his head.

Not everyone works like that. Some people only have the inner monologue. or see shapes, and some people have no visual experience of thought whatsoever — they just feel it and do it.

Isn’t that fascinating?

The Inner Monologue Drill Sergeant

Here’s the one that gets Justin. The inner monologue that just never stops. The voice that narrates everything — I’m getting up, I’m walking, I’m driving, I’m talking to my boss, I’m going to say this.

Justin’s inner monologue isn’t exactly a helpful life coach. It’s more like an angry drill sergeant who shows up the second you sit down with your coffee to remind you that you thought about vacuuming twenty minutes ago and the clock is ticking. Not friendly. Not encouraging. Just pushy, a little bossy, and honestly a touch aggressive.

But could you imagine having that voice running all day? Every single thing narrated in real time? That’s someone else’s entire experience of being alive. And somehow they’re functioning. Respect.

The Hardware Store Kid

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Justin’s uncle tells him about a kid working at a hardware store who literally cannot hammer a nail into a wall. He holds it up, lets go, and tries to hit it before it falls. Every time. The owner is about to fire him.

Then the till system goes down. And this kid — the one who cannot figure out a hammer and a nail — sits down behind the register and gets the entire point of sale system back up and running from scratch.

Everybody’s got their thing. The way you think shapes what you’re good at. And if you can’t visualize a nail going into wood, maybe you’re seeing something else entirely — something that makes you exceptional at a completely different problem.

Give People A Break

Here’s where the episode lands and it’s worth sitting with. If everyone processes their thoughts differently — if some people are running on a non stop inner monologue, some are seeing nothing but shapes, some are being controlled by an angry internal narrator they didn’t ask for — then maybe we need to give each other a little more grace.

You don’t know what’s going on in someone’s head, how they process things, or what their inner voice sounds like or whether they even have one. So maybe — just maybe — be a little nicer to the next guy. Because you genuinely have no idea what’s happening in there.

Those are the thoughts off the stem this week. 🌿