I think it’s to do with the intensity and direction of concentrated thinking as much as the retrieval of information. It’s true that intuition comes into play when I anagram but my focus is always consciously fixed on the task at hand. When I play dnb intuitively, I purposefully weaken conscious awareness in order to strengthen the ‘intuitive signal.’
But, to clarify, although dnb minus conscious focus humanises me, dnb + focus does not turn me into a robot, whereas anagramming does—possibly because the former involves memory operations only, with no attendant analysis. Similarly, intensive vocabulary memorisation is fine.
Perhaps this suggests a fundamental difference in social interaction styles: between actively searching for meaning in the social space (through analysis) and waiting for meaning to make itself known (which requires trusting that it inevitably will).
Oh yes, another anecdote regarding the activity/personality interaction: whilst studying English, people, when prompted, would correctly divine that that is what I did. Now, they assume that I am science-oriented. I suppose I must just give off a different kind of ‘whiff.’
I think it’s to do with the intensity and direction of concentrated thinking as much as the retrieval of information. It’s true that intuition comes into play when I anagram but my focus is always consciously fixed on the task at hand. When I play dnb intuitively, I purposefully weaken conscious awareness in order to strengthen the ‘intuitive signal.’
But, to clarify, although dnb minus conscious focus humanises me, dnb + focus does not turn me into a robot, whereas anagramming does—possibly because the former involves memory operations only, with no attendant analysis. Similarly, intensive vocabulary memorisation is fine.
Perhaps this suggests a fundamental difference in social interaction styles: between actively searching for meaning in the social space (through analysis) and waiting for meaning to make itself known (which requires trusting that it inevitably will).
Oh yes, another anecdote regarding the activity/personality interaction: whilst studying English, people, when prompted, would correctly divine that that is what I did. Now, they assume that I am science-oriented. I suppose I must just give off a different kind of ‘whiff.’