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[ 2 minute read ]
Lateralism
How to be even more boring, or not
I may have just discovered why some people think I am stupid, some people think I am clever; some people think I am mad, and some people think I am educated. Most people think I am tedious.
Many people cannot add a lot of anomalies in an environment together in a cohesive manner to then be able to use it as a premise in an argument; it seems I can. I am hyper-vigilant. I think that is a necessary requisite; and I have some spare brain capacity.
Yet, none of this would, I suspect be outside of how detectives operate. I am reminded of a couple of TV shows from way back when; Columbo, with Peter Falk; and House, with Hugh Laurie.
It is the way I talk and describe things but not necessarily write. I find it extremely difficult and perhaps impossible to just plain say something. I consider all the points to be of equal importance, no matter how tenuous or peripheral they may also appear to be. I suppose if I had really thought about it, I may have independently come up with the, now not unusual, idea that not all dinosaurs were grey, or a single colour all over. But here I am merely highlighting the same thought we have all had at some point in our lives; 'Why didn't I think of that?'
Lateralism, despite not being in the online OED, is related to lateral thinking, which is the process of approaching a subject from multiple sides. How can we switch that on and off? If yours is switched on and mine is not, will I think you are waffling? If I am a professional in a mental health position, would I ever think that what seems to be the tiniest and weakest premise is so tenuous that it is highly improbable, and so may be thinking, 'Just focus, patient'?
I think I almost recognised my affliction, if that is what it is if it cannot be turned off, when someone said, 'Why do you talk like that?' and some other people agreed that they could recognise me by my distinct voice. In the former situation I tried to abridge my explanation as a response to questions, but in the latter situation, I considered that it is an auditory thing. It turns out to be, I think, just long spoken sentences.
On two occasions I asked questions of two PhD graduates on their field of study and received similar responses; 'I can't put it in layman terms', and 'It is so large as to make it difficult to summarise.' Thinking back I might rudely consider that they were poor conversationalists but that might be because I am familiar with Professor Brian Cox, whose voices rings in my head with his humourous, 'Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. Well, actually, we do know what you are...' and then launched into one of his public lectures.
I need to tame the wild beast that is my mind. I need to learn language skills and good conversation skills. What's that? The answer to why I talk like that is because I need to get out more?
