'Punching In' and Why Can't I think Out Loud...
...Instead of Only While Typing?
This New York Times article blew me away. It’s about ‘Punching In” where Rappers don’t write out the full lyrics to a song, you kind of just vibe with the beat and mumble until a cool line comes to you. Then you can sort of past it all together in the end.
It blew my mind because this is so different from how I produce words out of my brain. I have longed for this method for a few years. I bought the professional version of Dragon Naturally Speaking and everything during a carpel tunnel flare up, convinced I wouldn’t be able to earn a living if I couldn’t get thoughts out of my brain through my mouth.
Every time I tried this, it failed.
Maybe my contemporaneous thought brain region has been irrevocably linked to fingers on a keyboard after all these years of writing for a living. Great. Another thing to be anxious about. The NYTimes Rappers article and this guy on YouTube talking about Google's new voice typing feature made me decide to give it another try.
The thing that is different about ‘voice typing’, Google’s new feature, and ‘dictation’ which is widely available, is that with normal dictation, if you mess up and need to edit what you said with the mouse and keyboard, the voice input automatically turns off. This means you end up clicking the mic on and off all the time and it is too annoying.
This article I'm writing at least partially assisted by voice typing. I envisioned this Substack experiment could be one where I capture the rambling thoughts inside my brain as I walk and get lost in my own head. I honestly think is some good stuff in there but much like the rappers in the video there's probably about 59 minutes worth of garbage rambling and maybe about 1 minute worth of worthwhile thought. I guess I feel a need to capture those little pieces of gems from the random inner workings of my mind where I pull out all of the things I've been exposed to and start making connections.
Will it save any time in the end to type conversationally like this? I guess that remains to be seen.
In my day job I can’t put two sentences of coherent thought together contemporaneously. My inability to think on my feet in face-to-face conversations has actually hindered me a lot at work because my employer would love it if I became a “thought leader”. I'm so bad at it that one time I was interviewed by the local NPR station to give my thoughts on a happening related to my expertise.
Friends, it was so bad they didn't even use one second of my interview in their spot.
I always knew I had a problem with public speaking, speaking contemporaneously, and chit chatting with new people. It is anxiety inducing, and it always brings up major imposter syndrome feelings to the surface. When I'm writing through my fingers on the keyboard the same imposter syndrome doesn't hold me back. I think it's because I can stress test every word, revise and stress test it again against all of the possible ways internet people could attack me for my stupid ideas. That gives me enough confidence to put things out there, at least in my area of professional expertise.
As for this pseudonymous thing, remains to be seen. Follow along if you want to see if I can finally conquer my demons in this place.
I leave you with the definitive 90’s kid song on imposter syndrome.
Do you think I’m a weirdo for posting this song?
Well, fuck it! I’m trying to grow here.