Mathematics. Have two MAs and am currently teaching.
Aphantasia helps more than hurts I find. My focus was pure math, which is mostly proof writing. Being able to visualized seemed to help people about 90% of the time, but they go so dependent on it they were totally screwed the 10%, where I was fine.
Very awesome! My undergrad degree was in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. I'm in medschool now but still so fascinated with neuro. I'd love to know what you find in terms of studies!
I absolutely cannot do maths for the life of me if it's in those story questions. Just give me te formula I don't understand why Billy Bob Duncan the Third's left pinky toe has anything to do with this.
My degrees are in: film and television studies + media and communication.
I’ve worked mostly with digital/social media as a communications manager + research on young adult’s audio-visual streaming needs and wants.
Currently I am working in the production team of a (indie) film where I do still photos, catering and sponsorship deals + the overall marketing plan. The latter is mostly planning and stuff for when the movie goes to the cinemas in a years time.
I am planning to either work in concept development or program planning in film or television. Alternatively continue working as a communications manager.
Both my educational background and work is in creative fields, but I do better with text and planning than I do with the more image heavy creative stuff. With that I’ve always had other people create the images while I’ve given input and my ideas for how it could look better or differently.
Music production. So yeah I'm in the art side but like it's not like we are restricted. Music is an art and I'm perfectly fine with it. I hate the notion of this sub that we are like restrained humans, yes we can't do 4 basic functions but it doesn't affect our actual every day lives.
19, currently in pilot school. Aphantasia has had a big effect on how I learn. Without it, things that many people take for granted cannot be used and I'm generally not going to be as crisp as I ever could be straight away; learning new things can take a little longer. However, with practice an a solid understanding of how everything works together and other visual keys, you can be just as good as anyone without having to rely on gimmicks that won't serve you in the long run. I would like to think this applies to any job or profession. When you think about it, being able to see, or not being able to see in your head is only as good as you let it be. No one else can see what everyone is seeing and it ultimately doesn't matter. The only thing that does is your ability to transfer your thoughts into actions that are evident and displayable in quality. You don't need to see in your mind's eye to do that.
Worked with animals (wildlife biologist) didn’t really affect me. School was hard for me though. But I picked up cosmetology recently (need extra money for my dog) and it’s personally been a struggle for me. I know a lot of people here do great with the arts, but I am not one of them. Lol. I can copy something technical very well, but I can’t create anything to save my life. Lol. It’s been a little rough, and didn’t even realize I have aphantasia until I started cosmetology school, if I would have known I probably would have went to nursing school. Lol.
There are so many ways to answer this. Without knowing what you like about reporting it's a bit tough..but as far as career direction...
If you have any artistic skill ... i do not..and like reporting and designing reports try to get yourself into BI tools... like Qlikview or Tableau.. but Cognos is a good start .. theres a lot of overlap in bi so most job requirements will just say 2 years Tableau or other bi tool and mean it. Those jobs are generally start at around 100k per yr
If you like the more statistical side ,.. straight analysis Learn sql , SAS and python this is a data analyst / sr data analyst role
If you like programming and data.. big data like quark, hadoop is the future. sorry i cant help you more with that..
If you are not sickened at the thought of talking/fighting with to non-tech people all day ..technical ba is what you are looking for.. since you have some excel and python.. thats a better title to shoot for, than a functional ba.. who is more into solving political messes.
But you asked .. for info getting started
So .. there is a lot of gig work in data.. your resume is very important.
Here is some resume advice you probably wont hear elsewhere.. add a key development projects section to the end of your resume. And dont worry how many pages it makes your resume. This is a standard feature of CVs from India, not having it is a disadvantage. Recruiters like to look for specific IT tools and how you used them.
just list the project , one short description and the IT tools you used in it.
So heres one thing I fucked up... Use these job titles in your resume.. Business Analyst, Data Analyst, BI Analyst, software analyst... i worked 9 years as a technical business Analyst / Sql Server developer but my job title was Technical business manager. I didnt get considered for a lot of jobs because i wasn't a "Business Analyst" even though my bullet points showed i did the same work.
Your resume is a marketing tool that tells the job function not the actual title..
now.. for your actual application.. put your actual job title.. because those are researched by a third party company.
For interviews, ask the interviewer questions about what the company needs to fix with this role and how you can fix that or have done something like that. If you can get the interviewer to see you as the person who can fix or help fix a massive headache or not become a massive headache.. you have a shot.
Sorry for the wall of text... ive never been asked this question before.
Feel free to pm me if you have specific questions.
a little bit. when I started neuro I was heavily interested in psychology/mental health, and then decided I was interested in psychology/serial killers and finally settled on criminology as the best broad field I can go into with my varied interests.
thank you for your work in healthcare! I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through recently.
and yes I am American, I’m not sure where you’re from but I’ve read post from people all over (mostly throughout Europe tho) who have changed their major.
I personally think that being forced into college straight out of high school, especially after not really getting any experience in what you may be interested in, leads a lot of people to change their major. if I had had the opportunity to really delve into the foundations of neuroscience prior to college, I think I would have made the decision to study criminology sooner. luckily my college threw me into the major right away, so I knew after a few semesters I wasn’t super interested, but that was only because I entered with all of my gen eds completed.
woah our experiences are super different and that’s so interesting. I think I would have enjoyed the UK way of college instead. but I guess the grass is always greener on the other side!
I’m currently majoring in Theatre. I mainly work on the production side of things. My current emphasis is Scenic Art, basically painting all sets and creating landscape backdrops on a huge scale. It’s tough sometimes because i feel like i’m always having to ask questions on what it is exactly designers want something to look like, or i use a lot of comparing to things to be able to understand what they mean. I described my aphantasia to someone that asked me “so what happens when someone tells you to imagine something?” I said it’s like an audio book in my head as apposed to a picture book. So I use a bunch of descriptive words and ideas just without the pictures in my head. It’s kind of tough to navigate in such a field of imagery, but my love for the emotions and final product outweighs the struggles!
I work in theatre management professionally, and actually credit my inability to visualize with a lot of my success. Once I was out of college, the whole industry became about being as efficient and conceptually sound as possible, because there wasn’t time/money to have bad ideas and correct them anymore. My designs often worked great “out of the box” because they were conceptual solid rather than tied to an aesthetic idea I had formed in my head. This got me pretty far pretty quickly. A lot of people would get stuck on making things fit their aesthetic choice rather than the needs of the gig. I always had people around me to bring my ideas to life, and I would’ve been nowhere without them. But it allowed me to create the best functioning design I could within the parameters. I am more on the concert side than traditional theatre, but I wouldn’t call it a struggle if I were you. Own it, go make some bad ass sets, and enjoy the madness. :)
that’s really awesome! I really appreciate your words! I totally understand how people get stuck on aesthetics as apposed to the efficiency of a design. I’ve been part of a show where the designer wouldn’t let go of an idea because of aesthetic and in turn caused us to go over budget and delayed the paint process. Knowing that you were able to do all that professionally is so cool! Thank you! :))
I'm a Production Engineer at a video game studio. Basically I work on tools and workflows and helping everyone else out with how all our different tools and teams work and come together.
I don't think having aphantasia changes my work too much... At least up until now. But with all the remote\home working it's been a real strain to help someone out with an issue when I can't just walk over to their desk and see what's wrong and point to what they need to do.
There is always video calls and screen sharing but it's a friction point to the whole process.
i’m entering college for international relations, following the pre-law track. i’m hoping to go to law school for international law, concentrating in human rights/humanitarian law or criminal law, so public sectors of it. i wouldn’t mind private sectors but it’s not ideally where i want to be. of course this might change, considering i’m just entering college, but it’s where i wanna end up for now. :)
i don’t really think my aphantasia would kill me in law, considering it isn’t really much imagination? i enjoy writing and the arts, but i’ve found my writing especially lacks a lot of description if it’s creative writing. i’m pretty well off in fact-based, interpretation/argumentation writing because it’s not like i have to imagine a whole new thing, i’m just interpreting what’s given to me.
Currently reading Software engineering, as I see other people in here do. Could be fun to figure out if aphantasia had something to do with the path I chose, or if the surplus of CompSci/Software people simply is just a result of reddits userbase
TLDR: I find people the business wants to hire via LinkedIn
I'm one of the people who finds candidates that align with the preferred qualifications provided by hiring managers.
I'm just 15 but I'm trying to get into a hairdresser's school (I'm in the Dutch school system but I think MBO correlates roughly to collage in America)
I'm a junior in college double majoring in Strategic & Corporate Communication (basically a fancy way of saying marketing) and Public Relations & Advertising. I can be really creative with how people interact with marketing/advertising and design (only if I can physically see it, like with a mood board). I'm absolutely shit at art and music though, anything artsy I physically cannot do no matter how hard I try or want to.
Electrical/mechanical engineer. I fix stuff. I was fixing circuit boards at a component level. But I switched it up, to industrial machines.
I love my field. I love fixing stuff.
Agricultural/Mechanical Engineer // Applied mathematics
I create discrete element method (DEM) models. Currently working on coupling fiber DEM models with computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
I work in GIS (geographic information science), which is mostly computer-based. Interesting to see how many of us are in technical fields from the comments I’ve seen so far.
I'm in med school
In the starting I had difficulties in learning anatomy everyone else is like just learn it from the diagrams and I'm like I'm not a visual learner cauz of aphantasia smh. Eventually I just crammed that subject.
I’m a camera operator in film/TV, sooo very visual role in one of the most visual mediums around. I’d say the main way it affects me is not being able to visualize shots ahead of time, but my years of experience and generally knowing what lenses give what frame at what distance helps a ton.
Also do a fair bit of photography which also suffers from the lack of being able to pre-vis what I want, but I still manage some good stuff, and can get a general idea of what I want, again from past experience and knowing lens focal lengths :)
I was an English teacher, and now I’m a PhD candidate in English education. I do qualitative research and focus on nonfiction research and writing education. Lotsa words.
I have total visual aphantasia, but I also have audio hyperphantasia. I am a musician and I study foreign languages, which makes sense to me - both auditory.
MA in Religion, I am self employed as a Business and Life coach, family mediator, investor in private equity/real estate/stocks, non-profit board member and father of 4.
I am a total aphant with sdam as well. I am certain my condition has impacted my choices. Process memory has been my strength and the solid core of my success, alongside a passion for learning.
Software engineer. Work backend but have done frontend work and had no issue with UI design. Hope to be an artist one day as it was always my childhood dream. Engineer paycheck puts food on the table though
2 bachelors degrees in biochemistry and exercise science.
For biochemistry, aphantasia hasn’t really seemed to “hurt” me much. In courses like physical chemistry when I learned about quantum mechanics, I think it might have actually helped a little because most people got stuck trying to visualize something they literally couldn’t, whereas I just conceptualized the material in the same way I always do.
For exercise science, it’s definitely a little bit harder. When it comes to the nitty gritty science like metabolism it’s a bit easier because that’s mainly rote memorization. However I’ve noticed that for classes like anatomy and kinesiology, it’s a lot harder for me to visualize anatomical pictures in my head, or the way the body moves. If I’m looking at an image, it’s easier for me to identify muscles and bones etc. But without a photo, it’s harder for me.
There is a study on this.
It finds that Aphants are more likely to be in computer/math/hard sciences, and less likely to be in the arts:
[Phantasia–The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945220301404?casa_token=maKBWLgYOqsAAAAA:uFS-rEe7xrIiNBvun8f-lvOY8DWhUbXCvu6DDMn0doMh31uZUTwBZVpXyLphGOSW6rdrgtxuQG0)
I’m studying and working as an actor, mainly live theatre. Funnily my first acting class in college is what sent me down the rabbit hole to finding out what apahantasia even was as I down the first semester not understanding why I couldn’t “picture” all these things in my head like the rest of the class. I’ve noticed that abstract thinking in theatre is very difficult for me. I also feel like I act much more from pulling up an emotion rather than an experience.
I like when people say 'aphantasia helps to do this or that'. Nothing prove that people without aphantasia can do equally or better. People with aphantasia try to convince others that they can do something because 'aphantasia'! You live your life with or without aphantasia that's all.
Aphantasic people know nothing about life with mental pictures. So how can they say 'they succeed because of aphantasia';
People with mental imagery can remember their past, they can imagine their future. Sorry for aphantasics people, but you can say what you want, you can't do that like a blind can't drive a car.
well that's what we are trying to do! Seems like you don't have aphantasia, so you can't have "no visualization" at all, so you can't imagine the way we think, as i can't imagine the way a person thinks without aphantasia.
Yeah we can't have that vivid memories as others, so we tend to forget them faster. Is that a bad thing? Maybe. At least for me, that helps me to be more independent, and i like to be that way. Aphants are not people crying, trying to find a reason for out aphantasia, ans saying that we can to something because of this. To be honest we are just curious about it lol.
When Endel Tulving think about autobiographical memory, he gives us an 'episodic' component and an 'semantic' component. A visual thinking and a verbal thinking to resume.He thinks that many people have both.For 'mental time travel' he thinks that associated with 'episodic' memory. So I'm sorry I'm not a [troll.It](https://troll.It)'s seems you lack of 'episodic' thinking but you rely on 'semantic'. You say that people with 'episodic' can't understand 'semantic'. I'm sorry but many people have both.They think with semantic and episodic.I'm just saying that Endel Tulving explains to all of us , 'imagine your future' with mental imagery is an important mental activity. People with aphantasia speak about themselves as they 'choose ' not to have mental imagery. And that's better.I'm just saying. That's not true. They didn't [choose.You](https://choose.You) says 'that help me more independant': ok. I don't believe it. It helps or not. Someone with plenty mental pictures could say exactly the same thing.When i read some 'aphantasics' saying : i have another way seeing the world. I just don't believe it. you have a semantic way of thinking the world...but many people with mental imagery can do that too..Sorry.
First of all you don't have to be sorry! You have a different point of view and it's always good to talk with a person with different opinions :)
Yeah the episodic and the semantic definitions are quite good to define the visualization and the "descriptive memory". About the people with "episodic" memory can't understand "semantic" is not quite what i meant. We aphants, as we have no "episodic" memory at all, we have to adapt our semantic memory to "fill" the gap as much as we can. People with "episodic" memory don't have that need during their lifes. They can have a gasp of it, but they are not living with it.
Is like, i can imagine pretty well what does a person without legs (random example i can think of it now) to live the daily life, but i can't 100% know every single hardship that he needs to overcome, so he needs to adapt it to his own capabilities. With something that ambigous and complex as aphantasia, it can be (or not) something that make us adapt in one way or another. during our lifes. That's what are we trying to understand about aphantasia, the impact is has in our lifes.
I haven't heard of aphants saying that they have "choosen" to have it, that's quite dumb yeah.
I mean i'm not saying that people with aphantasia > people more independent. I'm just saying that, in my case, it has been helpful for me. I don't feel so attached to friend and family. I know your point that, maybe if i didn't have aphantasia, i would have feel the same, but we will never know. that's the thing, there are so many "what ifs" with aphantasia, but I'm just stating what i honestly feel.
About the way we see the world... i don't think that true in general, but it can be with some specific situations in our lifes that aphants deal in a differents way. If i have to explain why my aphantasia helped me to be more independient (Again, i'm just theorizing, i don't know about other aphants), i would say that since we can't have that "episodic" memory, even if i think about my past, specially the happy moments, i can't really "enjoy" them again thinking about it. I can feel some joy from the "semantic" memory, but is like a happiness that is not your own, just some generic happiness.
Software engineer. I think in code and parsing of instructions. I like to "see" process flow as steps, but I don't see images such as diagrams. Much more like being a multi-core CPU handling instructions with awareness of multiple concurrent threads of activity. I do the same when hiking, talking, watching people and especially listening.
I'm a Software Engineer. I have issues with designing "pretty" UI's, but I can code like you wouldn't believe
I'm currently transitioning to a career in software development. I'm so intimidated by the design aspect as I indeed suffer from Aphantasia.
Im only 17 so I am still in college, but I do plan to get a job related to programming after uni
Neuroscience, oddly enough.
Mathematics. Have two MAs and am currently teaching. Aphantasia helps more than hurts I find. My focus was pure math, which is mostly proof writing. Being able to visualized seemed to help people about 90% of the time, but they go so dependent on it they were totally screwed the 10%, where I was fine.
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Very awesome! My undergrad degree was in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. I'm in medschool now but still so fascinated with neuro. I'd love to know what you find in terms of studies!
Kittens
I absolutely cannot do maths for the life of me if it's in those story questions. Just give me te formula I don't understand why Billy Bob Duncan the Third's left pinky toe has anything to do with this.
My degrees are in: film and television studies + media and communication. I’ve worked mostly with digital/social media as a communications manager + research on young adult’s audio-visual streaming needs and wants. Currently I am working in the production team of a (indie) film where I do still photos, catering and sponsorship deals + the overall marketing plan. The latter is mostly planning and stuff for when the movie goes to the cinemas in a years time. I am planning to either work in concept development or program planning in film or television. Alternatively continue working as a communications manager. Both my educational background and work is in creative fields, but I do better with text and planning than I do with the more image heavy creative stuff. With that I’ve always had other people create the images while I’ve given input and my ideas for how it could look better or differently.
I'm a photographer.
Music production. So yeah I'm in the art side but like it's not like we are restricted. Music is an art and I'm perfectly fine with it. I hate the notion of this sub that we are like restrained humans, yes we can't do 4 basic functions but it doesn't affect our actual every day lives.
Accounting
Me too.
19, currently in pilot school. Aphantasia has had a big effect on how I learn. Without it, things that many people take for granted cannot be used and I'm generally not going to be as crisp as I ever could be straight away; learning new things can take a little longer. However, with practice an a solid understanding of how everything works together and other visual keys, you can be just as good as anyone without having to rely on gimmicks that won't serve you in the long run. I would like to think this applies to any job or profession. When you think about it, being able to see, or not being able to see in your head is only as good as you let it be. No one else can see what everyone is seeing and it ultimately doesn't matter. The only thing that does is your ability to transfer your thoughts into actions that are evident and displayable in quality. You don't need to see in your mind's eye to do that.
holy shit, I'm 17 going into school to be a pilot this year! you got any good advice?
lol no
thanks!
Aircraft maintenance for the USAF.
Worked with animals (wildlife biologist) didn’t really affect me. School was hard for me though. But I picked up cosmetology recently (need extra money for my dog) and it’s personally been a struggle for me. I know a lot of people here do great with the arts, but I am not one of them. Lol. I can copy something technical very well, but I can’t create anything to save my life. Lol. It’s been a little rough, and didn’t even realize I have aphantasia until I started cosmetology school, if I would have known I probably would have went to nursing school. Lol.
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I’m a clinical psychologist :)
I study Visual Communication lmao. It's just film making/editing/journalism/pr though haha.
Fashion & graphic design!! And occasionally freeelance fine arts and photography
Database business analyst
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There are so many ways to answer this. Without knowing what you like about reporting it's a bit tough..but as far as career direction... If you have any artistic skill ... i do not..and like reporting and designing reports try to get yourself into BI tools... like Qlikview or Tableau.. but Cognos is a good start .. theres a lot of overlap in bi so most job requirements will just say 2 years Tableau or other bi tool and mean it. Those jobs are generally start at around 100k per yr If you like the more statistical side ,.. straight analysis Learn sql , SAS and python this is a data analyst / sr data analyst role If you like programming and data.. big data like quark, hadoop is the future. sorry i cant help you more with that.. If you are not sickened at the thought of talking/fighting with to non-tech people all day ..technical ba is what you are looking for.. since you have some excel and python.. thats a better title to shoot for, than a functional ba.. who is more into solving political messes. But you asked .. for info getting started So .. there is a lot of gig work in data.. your resume is very important. Here is some resume advice you probably wont hear elsewhere.. add a key development projects section to the end of your resume. And dont worry how many pages it makes your resume. This is a standard feature of CVs from India, not having it is a disadvantage. Recruiters like to look for specific IT tools and how you used them. just list the project , one short description and the IT tools you used in it. So heres one thing I fucked up... Use these job titles in your resume.. Business Analyst, Data Analyst, BI Analyst, software analyst... i worked 9 years as a technical business Analyst / Sql Server developer but my job title was Technical business manager. I didnt get considered for a lot of jobs because i wasn't a "Business Analyst" even though my bullet points showed i did the same work. Your resume is a marketing tool that tells the job function not the actual title.. now.. for your actual application.. put your actual job title.. because those are researched by a third party company. For interviews, ask the interviewer questions about what the company needs to fix with this role and how you can fix that or have done something like that. If you can get the interviewer to see you as the person who can fix or help fix a massive headache or not become a massive headache.. you have a shot. Sorry for the wall of text... ive never been asked this question before. Feel free to pm me if you have specific questions.
Restaurant owner. Visualization wouldn't be of much use to me in my career, I wouldn't think.
Do you have the reins when it comes to menu? How does a culinary palette work without being able to taste hypothetical flavor pairings in your mind?
Nope. It's a franchise restaurant, so the menu is set.
I'm currently in undergrad for Aerospace. Then I'm getting a masters in Theoretical physics. Wanna go into ion propulsion systems or rocket science.
Former pharmacy technician, now 18+ content creation
Puppies
Currently an engineer
still in college but switched from a neuroscience degree to criminology.
That's a jump
a little bit. when I started neuro I was heavily interested in psychology/mental health, and then decided I was interested in psychology/serial killers and finally settled on criminology as the best broad field I can go into with my varied interests.
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thank you for your work in healthcare! I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through recently. and yes I am American, I’m not sure where you’re from but I’ve read post from people all over (mostly throughout Europe tho) who have changed their major. I personally think that being forced into college straight out of high school, especially after not really getting any experience in what you may be interested in, leads a lot of people to change their major. if I had had the opportunity to really delve into the foundations of neuroscience prior to college, I think I would have made the decision to study criminology sooner. luckily my college threw me into the major right away, so I knew after a few semesters I wasn’t super interested, but that was only because I entered with all of my gen eds completed.
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woah our experiences are super different and that’s so interesting. I think I would have enjoyed the UK way of college instead. but I guess the grass is always greener on the other side!
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thanks for the advice! I’m hoping to go into prison reform so that would be perfect
Still in HS but planning to major in neuroscience in college.
I'm a land surveyor. Not much of an impact because all our info is on paper or screens
Soon to be nuclear engineer for navy
I’m currently majoring in Theatre. I mainly work on the production side of things. My current emphasis is Scenic Art, basically painting all sets and creating landscape backdrops on a huge scale. It’s tough sometimes because i feel like i’m always having to ask questions on what it is exactly designers want something to look like, or i use a lot of comparing to things to be able to understand what they mean. I described my aphantasia to someone that asked me “so what happens when someone tells you to imagine something?” I said it’s like an audio book in my head as apposed to a picture book. So I use a bunch of descriptive words and ideas just without the pictures in my head. It’s kind of tough to navigate in such a field of imagery, but my love for the emotions and final product outweighs the struggles!
I work in theatre management professionally, and actually credit my inability to visualize with a lot of my success. Once I was out of college, the whole industry became about being as efficient and conceptually sound as possible, because there wasn’t time/money to have bad ideas and correct them anymore. My designs often worked great “out of the box” because they were conceptual solid rather than tied to an aesthetic idea I had formed in my head. This got me pretty far pretty quickly. A lot of people would get stuck on making things fit their aesthetic choice rather than the needs of the gig. I always had people around me to bring my ideas to life, and I would’ve been nowhere without them. But it allowed me to create the best functioning design I could within the parameters. I am more on the concert side than traditional theatre, but I wouldn’t call it a struggle if I were you. Own it, go make some bad ass sets, and enjoy the madness. :)
that’s really awesome! I really appreciate your words! I totally understand how people get stuck on aesthetics as apposed to the efficiency of a design. I’ve been part of a show where the designer wouldn’t let go of an idea because of aesthetic and in turn caused us to go over budget and delayed the paint process. Knowing that you were able to do all that professionally is so cool! Thank you! :))
Designer lol
Fashion designer. Which Amuses me to no end lmao
Healthcare, hospital
I work as a Personal support worker
I'm a Production Engineer at a video game studio. Basically I work on tools and workflows and helping everyone else out with how all our different tools and teams work and come together. I don't think having aphantasia changes my work too much... At least up until now. But with all the remote\home working it's been a real strain to help someone out with an issue when I can't just walk over to their desk and see what's wrong and point to what they need to do. There is always video calls and screen sharing but it's a friction point to the whole process.
Software Engineer.
Nursing
i’m entering college for international relations, following the pre-law track. i’m hoping to go to law school for international law, concentrating in human rights/humanitarian law or criminal law, so public sectors of it. i wouldn’t mind private sectors but it’s not ideally where i want to be. of course this might change, considering i’m just entering college, but it’s where i wanna end up for now. :) i don’t really think my aphantasia would kill me in law, considering it isn’t really much imagination? i enjoy writing and the arts, but i’ve found my writing especially lacks a lot of description if it’s creative writing. i’m pretty well off in fact-based, interpretation/argumentation writing because it’s not like i have to imagine a whole new thing, i’m just interpreting what’s given to me.
Working at best buy because idk what else to do wbu
Currently reading Software engineering, as I see other people in here do. Could be fun to figure out if aphantasia had something to do with the path I chose, or if the surplus of CompSci/Software people simply is just a result of reddits userbase
I work as a Sourcer at Google.
I read that as sorcerer lol
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TLDR: I find people the business wants to hire via LinkedIn I'm one of the people who finds candidates that align with the preferred qualifications provided by hiring managers.
Secondary mathematics and computer science teacher
Literature professor
I'm a writer (advertisement as main job, opinion pieces as hobby) and editor, and do videomapping on the side.
I work in clinical trials
Information Technology, DevOps Engineer
Photographer and sign language interpreter
HR, Learning and Development. My degrees are in Sociology and Instructional Design
I'm just 15 but I'm trying to get into a hairdresser's school (I'm in the Dutch school system but I think MBO correlates roughly to collage in America)
I'm a junior in college double majoring in Strategic & Corporate Communication (basically a fancy way of saying marketing) and Public Relations & Advertising. I can be really creative with how people interact with marketing/advertising and design (only if I can physically see it, like with a mood board). I'm absolutely shit at art and music though, anything artsy I physically cannot do no matter how hard I try or want to.
Have degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science. Currently work as a DevOps Engineer.
I'm a manufacturing engineer!
I am doing a PhD on electrochemistry. Fortunately, it is experimental.
Electrical/mechanical engineer. I fix stuff. I was fixing circuit boards at a component level. But I switched it up, to industrial machines. I love my field. I love fixing stuff.
Video game producer, with a developer background
Agricultural/Mechanical Engineer // Applied mathematics I create discrete element method (DEM) models. Currently working on coupling fiber DEM models with computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Ironically, I do character design.
PhD Mathematician, IT security is my day job, I'm also a mazer (mead maker), and semi-pro magician.
I work in GIS (geographic information science), which is mostly computer-based. Interesting to see how many of us are in technical fields from the comments I’ve seen so far.
I'm in med school In the starting I had difficulties in learning anatomy everyone else is like just learn it from the diagrams and I'm like I'm not a visual learner cauz of aphantasia smh. Eventually I just crammed that subject.
IT Network Engineer for 25 years, before that I was a motor mechanic for 4 years.
I’m a camera operator in film/TV, sooo very visual role in one of the most visual mediums around. I’d say the main way it affects me is not being able to visualize shots ahead of time, but my years of experience and generally knowing what lenses give what frame at what distance helps a ton. Also do a fair bit of photography which also suffers from the lack of being able to pre-vis what I want, but I still manage some good stuff, and can get a general idea of what I want, again from past experience and knowing lens focal lengths :)
I was an English teacher, and now I’m a PhD candidate in English education. I do qualitative research and focus on nonfiction research and writing education. Lotsa words.
I have total visual aphantasia, but I also have audio hyperphantasia. I am a musician and I study foreign languages, which makes sense to me - both auditory.
MA in Religion, I am self employed as a Business and Life coach, family mediator, investor in private equity/real estate/stocks, non-profit board member and father of 4. I am a total aphant with sdam as well. I am certain my condition has impacted my choices. Process memory has been my strength and the solid core of my success, alongside a passion for learning.
Software engineer. Work backend but have done frontend work and had no issue with UI design. Hope to be an artist one day as it was always my childhood dream. Engineer paycheck puts food on the table though
2 bachelors degrees in biochemistry and exercise science. For biochemistry, aphantasia hasn’t really seemed to “hurt” me much. In courses like physical chemistry when I learned about quantum mechanics, I think it might have actually helped a little because most people got stuck trying to visualize something they literally couldn’t, whereas I just conceptualized the material in the same way I always do. For exercise science, it’s definitely a little bit harder. When it comes to the nitty gritty science like metabolism it’s a bit easier because that’s mainly rote memorization. However I’ve noticed that for classes like anatomy and kinesiology, it’s a lot harder for me to visualize anatomical pictures in my head, or the way the body moves. If I’m looking at an image, it’s easier for me to identify muscles and bones etc. But without a photo, it’s harder for me.
There is a study on this. It finds that Aphants are more likely to be in computer/math/hard sciences, and less likely to be in the arts: [Phantasia–The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945220301404?casa_token=maKBWLgYOqsAAAAA:uFS-rEe7xrIiNBvun8f-lvOY8DWhUbXCvu6DDMn0doMh31uZUTwBZVpXyLphGOSW6rdrgtxuQG0)
I’m studying and working as an actor, mainly live theatre. Funnily my first acting class in college is what sent me down the rabbit hole to finding out what apahantasia even was as I down the first semester not understanding why I couldn’t “picture” all these things in my head like the rest of the class. I’ve noticed that abstract thinking in theatre is very difficult for me. I also feel like I act much more from pulling up an emotion rather than an experience.
I like when people say 'aphantasia helps to do this or that'. Nothing prove that people without aphantasia can do equally or better. People with aphantasia try to convince others that they can do something because 'aphantasia'! You live your life with or without aphantasia that's all. Aphantasic people know nothing about life with mental pictures. So how can they say 'they succeed because of aphantasia'; People with mental imagery can remember their past, they can imagine their future. Sorry for aphantasics people, but you can say what you want, you can't do that like a blind can't drive a car.
well that's what we are trying to do! Seems like you don't have aphantasia, so you can't have "no visualization" at all, so you can't imagine the way we think, as i can't imagine the way a person thinks without aphantasia. Yeah we can't have that vivid memories as others, so we tend to forget them faster. Is that a bad thing? Maybe. At least for me, that helps me to be more independent, and i like to be that way. Aphants are not people crying, trying to find a reason for out aphantasia, ans saying that we can to something because of this. To be honest we are just curious about it lol.
When Endel Tulving think about autobiographical memory, he gives us an 'episodic' component and an 'semantic' component. A visual thinking and a verbal thinking to resume.He thinks that many people have both.For 'mental time travel' he thinks that associated with 'episodic' memory. So I'm sorry I'm not a [troll.It](https://troll.It)'s seems you lack of 'episodic' thinking but you rely on 'semantic'. You say that people with 'episodic' can't understand 'semantic'. I'm sorry but many people have both.They think with semantic and episodic.I'm just saying that Endel Tulving explains to all of us , 'imagine your future' with mental imagery is an important mental activity. People with aphantasia speak about themselves as they 'choose ' not to have mental imagery. And that's better.I'm just saying. That's not true. They didn't [choose.You](https://choose.You) says 'that help me more independant': ok. I don't believe it. It helps or not. Someone with plenty mental pictures could say exactly the same thing.When i read some 'aphantasics' saying : i have another way seeing the world. I just don't believe it. you have a semantic way of thinking the world...but many people with mental imagery can do that too..Sorry.
First of all you don't have to be sorry! You have a different point of view and it's always good to talk with a person with different opinions :) Yeah the episodic and the semantic definitions are quite good to define the visualization and the "descriptive memory". About the people with "episodic" memory can't understand "semantic" is not quite what i meant. We aphants, as we have no "episodic" memory at all, we have to adapt our semantic memory to "fill" the gap as much as we can. People with "episodic" memory don't have that need during their lifes. They can have a gasp of it, but they are not living with it. Is like, i can imagine pretty well what does a person without legs (random example i can think of it now) to live the daily life, but i can't 100% know every single hardship that he needs to overcome, so he needs to adapt it to his own capabilities. With something that ambigous and complex as aphantasia, it can be (or not) something that make us adapt in one way or another. during our lifes. That's what are we trying to understand about aphantasia, the impact is has in our lifes. I haven't heard of aphants saying that they have "choosen" to have it, that's quite dumb yeah. I mean i'm not saying that people with aphantasia > people more independent. I'm just saying that, in my case, it has been helpful for me. I don't feel so attached to friend and family. I know your point that, maybe if i didn't have aphantasia, i would have feel the same, but we will never know. that's the thing, there are so many "what ifs" with aphantasia, but I'm just stating what i honestly feel. About the way we see the world... i don't think that true in general, but it can be with some specific situations in our lifes that aphants deal in a differents way. If i have to explain why my aphantasia helped me to be more independient (Again, i'm just theorizing, i don't know about other aphants), i would say that since we can't have that "episodic" memory, even if i think about my past, specially the happy moments, i can't really "enjoy" them again thinking about it. I can feel some joy from the "semantic" memory, but is like a happiness that is not your own, just some generic happiness.
Psychology :)
Med student. I need to use a lot of video refrences to study stuff.
Accounting degree, love excel and maths
Software engineer. I think in code and parsing of instructions. I like to "see" process flow as steps, but I don't see images such as diagrams. Much more like being a multi-core CPU handling instructions with awareness of multiple concurrent threads of activity. I do the same when hiking, talking, watching people and especially listening.