[epihelix]

Have you ever reasoned through a complex coding or maths problem? Tell me, how did you do that without words?

You (and TFA) are making a false dichotomy here. Yes, of course we think in images. But we also have an inner monologue that is critically important for much of our higher-level thought. How do you even write a HN comment without thinking through it in words?

[t43562]

Vocalising my thoughts tends to get in the way - it's main purpose is to communicate to someone else and that's where I usually stumble trying to get the thought out accurately in a way that they're going to understand. We go back and forth until they do. IMO this again puts thoughts first and words second.

OTOH sometimes saying things different ways triggers a memory so I suspect words get used in a way that anything we can sense gets used - as a sort of index or hash key to other data.

[phainopepla2]

This doesn't seem like a dichotomy to me. Words can be a byproduct of thought and consciousness while also enabling new forms of consciousness and reasoning.

Clothing enables the human body to do things it couldn't before (staying warm, protecting the skin and feet, etc), but it also couldn't exist without the human body to create it.

[RaftPeople]

> Have you ever reasoned through a complex coding or maths problem? Tell me, how did you do that without words?

When I'm working through complex software design issues it's almost all abstract images/conceptual.

Testing different design approaches and options are all non-verbal, I imagine the system using abstract imagery that represents the different concepts.