> Stunned, I said, “Wait—tell me about this,” and he proceeded to explain prosopagnosia.
Tangentially related: As a nearsighted kid--and unaware of it--I would mentally catalogue what color clothes my friends were wearing in the morning so that I could improve my odds of finding them during outdoor recess.
Naturally, the first time I got glasses was a: "Holy Moly you mean everybody sees like this!?"
I had a flatmate with this at university. On campus he'd totally blank me (different departments), like I'd left something awful in the sink. At home Hey y'alright how's it going like nothing had happened. Bit weird, but you get used to it.
(Basically I just learnt to ignore him out of context too. It was only politeness that would otherwise incline me to acknowledge someone like that, so if they don't recognise me that just doesn't really apply, no need.)
I think prosapagnosia is more common than people think. I thought I was just kinda dumb/incompetent for years before I learned it was A Thing.
Once you understand it there are quite a few coping mechanisms. I recognize people by their gait, voice, and clothing in addition to the glasses, hair etc that the author mentions.
I do think mine is somehow improving. I still scored badly but tbh I'm not really into celebrities so about half of them I either haven't heard of or I know about but have seen very seldom.
--
Your score ....................... 23
Average score .................. 30.87
You scored higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test:
>
I don't understand how that factors in. It said my score was 34/40 but really it was 34/35. The rest I didn't know and I selected that I didn't know them.
>Anyone reading War and Peace will need at the very least a list of characters
Indeed, I almost gave up on it for that reason. Great story but does the character really need 6+ different ways to refer to them. "Too Like the Lightning" and its sequels are also great but Ada Palmer suffers from same of the same desires to refer to characters in far too many different ways to keep up with. That said, I also scored poorly on the face blindness test so maybe it's a cognitive inability keep up with too many names on my part.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one with that problem with the Terra Ignota series. I describe them to people as "my least favorite favorite books" since they're quite good, but infuriating to read.
Brandon Sanderson is another who has started to dip into this well and it's annoying there, too. Do I really have to remember that this character is named this amongst this group of people and named another thing amongst another group of people? Often, it's never even really explicitly stated that these two characters are the same and you end up having to refer to some wiki that probably has spoilers just because you find yourself wondering "am I supposed to know who this is?"
I think it's quite excusable in Russian novels, since that seems to be the natural way people address(ed?) each other in different contexts in Russian culture. A fantasy novel has little excuse though.
I am and it sucks. Very limiting socially. I can’t even reliably differentiate my parents from similar looking people beyond 10ft or so.
For most people the only thing I can really use are things like distinctive hair or tattoos.
Context is also very important. Back when I still worked in a office I eventually learned the people I interacted with at work, but if I saw them in, say, a store dressed casually I probably wouldn’t recognize them, or at least not be sure enough it was them to approach.
(BTW, face blindness is another one of those things that tends to co-occur with autism. )
> Stunned, I said, “Wait—tell me about this,” and he proceeded to explain prosopagnosia.
Tangentially related: As a nearsighted kid--and unaware of it--I would mentally catalogue what color clothes my friends were wearing in the morning so that I could improve my odds of finding them during outdoor recess.
Naturally, the first time I got glasses was a: "Holy Moly you mean everybody sees like this!?"
> The test shows famous people with these features removed
Article links to this test: https://www.testmybrain.org/face-blindness/face-blindness.ht...
But this isn't the "famous faces" test.
I think they meant to link to this one: https://v3.testmybrain.org/digitallab/?study=digitallab_s4_2...
That website does some funny stuff with sessions.
Crikey, you're right. Thanks for that.
I had a flatmate with this at university. On campus he'd totally blank me (different departments), like I'd left something awful in the sink. At home Hey y'alright how's it going like nothing had happened. Bit weird, but you get used to it.
(Basically I just learnt to ignore him out of context too. It was only politeness that would otherwise incline me to acknowledge someone like that, so if they don't recognise me that just doesn't really apply, no need.)
I think prosapagnosia is more common than people think. I thought I was just kinda dumb/incompetent for years before I learned it was A Thing.
Once you understand it there are quite a few coping mechanisms. I recognize people by their gait, voice, and clothing in addition to the glasses, hair etc that the author mentions.
I do think mine is somehow improving. I still scored badly but tbh I'm not really into celebrities so about half of them I either haven't heard of or I know about but have seen very seldom.
--
Your score ....................... 23
Average score .................. 30.87
You scored higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test: >
> I'm not really into celebrities
I don't understand how that factors in. It said my score was 34/40 but really it was 34/35. The rest I didn't know and I selected that I didn't know them.
> "You scored higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test"
Oh no. This explains some things.
I'm right there with you.
>Anyone reading War and Peace will need at the very least a list of characters
Indeed, I almost gave up on it for that reason. Great story but does the character really need 6+ different ways to refer to them. "Too Like the Lightning" and its sequels are also great but Ada Palmer suffers from same of the same desires to refer to characters in far too many different ways to keep up with. That said, I also scored poorly on the face blindness test so maybe it's a cognitive inability keep up with too many names on my part.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one with that problem with the Terra Ignota series. I describe them to people as "my least favorite favorite books" since they're quite good, but infuriating to read.
Brandon Sanderson is another who has started to dip into this well and it's annoying there, too. Do I really have to remember that this character is named this amongst this group of people and named another thing amongst another group of people? Often, it's never even really explicitly stated that these two characters are the same and you end up having to refer to some wiki that probably has spoilers just because you find yourself wondering "am I supposed to know who this is?"
I think it's quite excusable in Russian novels, since that seems to be the natural way people address(ed?) each other in different contexts in Russian culture. A fantasy novel has little excuse though.
I'm looking at you, Tolkien.
I am and it sucks. Very limiting socially. I can’t even reliably differentiate my parents from similar looking people beyond 10ft or so.
For most people the only thing I can really use are things like distinctive hair or tattoos.
Context is also very important. Back when I still worked in a office I eventually learned the people I interacted with at work, but if I saw them in, say, a store dressed casually I probably wouldn’t recognize them, or at least not be sure enough it was them to approach.
(BTW, face blindness is another one of those things that tends to co-occur with autism. )
I've long felt that I am face blind. I took the face blindness test with my girlfriend.
I scored right in the middle, but she scored better than nine out of every ten people. How about that!
Sometimes we learn we’re just fortunate to be mediocre amongst remarkable people.
Is it just me or this sounds like a solarpunk book title?