Imagination

Every now and then I come up with a hypothesis that sounds correct and has the added benefit of being totally impossible to verify. That’s almost as good as knowledge.

My hypothesis for today is that a person’s need for social interaction is inversely related to the quality of his or her imagination. In other words, if you have an excellent imagination, you might enjoy people, but you’re equally happy to be alone with your thoughts for large stretches. To put it bluntly, you fascinate yourself.

A key part of my hypothesis is the assumption that people have widely different powers of imagination. This seems likely. People are all over the map for every other mental ability. Whatever is happening inside the mind of the person with the worst imagination on earth is clearly very different from what’s happening in the mind of the most creative.

Presumably, if you have no imagination whatsoever, you need to get all of your stimulation from the environment, mostly from other people, or at least TV shows about other people. You wouldn’t want to be alone with your thoughts for more than two minutes because your thoughts would bore the living piss out of you.

On the other end of the spectrum, if your imagination is extraordinary, interaction with other people will just get in the way of the incredible experiences you could otherwise be having entirely in your head.

Your question of the day: Do you have an unusually good imagination? If so, do you enjoy being alone more than most people?

Comments

[naz]

I often fascinate myself. I'm sure everybody does it. Some more frequently than others.

[CKGO]

I like being alone and getting into imaginary universe when I am travelling (to work / long distances). Thats when you are not obliged to talk to anybody.

[Cathy]

No, definitely not. I have very little imagination and am not creative at all (analytical, yes) but I positively need to be alone for a decent proportion of my time. Don't watch TV either.

[John-Boy]

I tried my imagination //
But I was disturbed...

Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to?

I wonder how many people read the post and had the initial reaction of IQ=1/Creative?

Curious, not imaginative....

[DCM]

I'm glad to see so many other loners. I always knew I wasn't alone, though I prefer to be...

[Owen]

I got to this kinda late, damn!

I'm a security guard. I mostly guard construction sites, nights at distrobution centers, places where there isn't supposed to be anyone but me. Other than the dismal pay, I really dig it. The company has very high turnover, even though you don't have to actually do anything, and you only have to have a pulse to get hired.

I've long speculated that I enjoy my job because I am very good at entertaining myself, and most people can't keep their own company very long. I usually bring a lot of stuff to do, and more often than not I have an internet connection, but I *have* spent a few 12-hour shifts just thinking to myself. I usually spend a couple of hours every day just running through little projects in my head.

Every once in a while a worker will come to the site for a little overtime, and bore the shit out of me for an hour or two. They often actually seem to feel sorry for me. Poor ol' me, getting paid to do nothing except what I want to do, while they get to roll rocks up a hill or whatever.

Mark that up as anecdotal evidence.

[Listo Entertainment]

I enjoy some people a lot, specially open-minded beautiful girls.

I'm not so sure about my imagination, it's enough to draw my own comics (El Listo, in Spanish) and entertain other people, but it's not enough to entertain myself. When I'm alone I prefer to be connected to books, movies, comics or internet, non-stop.

[Unlucky Me]

When things get slow at work my imagination starts to kick in. I find myself in a world totally different (aka a world where I have lots of money and don't have to work). In my head I write the story of how it all happens. Sometimes I'm randomly picked to star in a movie, sometimes I get big bucks in a lawsuit, sometimes I kill someone for it. Wait, I did that last one last week . . .

[Tim]

Good imagination, usually don't have any trouble staying away from people for long periods of time.

[Michael]

Leave me alone. I'm busy.

:P

[patricia]

I don't have an unusually good imagination and I prefer to spend most of my time alone.

[Joe]

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070320-000001.html

[Cyrus]

I like the company of people, but sometimes I really enjoy being by myself for an entire day. Did I mention that I crack myself up a lot with my imagination. You might have something there Scott.

Cyrus
http://blog.uible.com

[Rol]

Scott, this really seems like the smartest thing I've read on the internet in ages. (But then...)

I've always been very happy in my own company, and never get bored because I've always got a hundred things going on, especially in my head (occasionally they even get out of my head and onto paper / pc, but not as often as I'd like).

My girlfriend on the other hand, despite being very intelligent, doesn't consider herself particularly creative (though I wouldn't say she lacks for imagination, she doesn't really get lost in it), and therefore has a far greater need for company than I do. She considers me antisocial (she's right!), but finds it hard to understand that I'm happy that way.

[Johnboy]

I like to be alone, but it's more my raging inner monologue than 'imagination' as such. My inner voice seems to talk independently, philosophying on various topics. I find it rather more interesting to listen to than other people.

Hold on, maybe this makes me a schizo....

[Jeorme]

Yes.

Now leave me alone....

[Tomas]

Interesting thing is that I never thought about it before as an opposite to many other social interaction ideas. But the answer is yes and yes..

Greetingas from Lithuania

[The One]

Perhaps you're right.

But then going by the long list of people nodding in agreement, I guess it is only a very flattering thing for misanthropes like me to think of our type.

[Carl]

I believe part of the reason I have such a freely active imagination was beause I grew up very alone with no siblings, parents at work all the time, and no friends. This coupled with a mound of comic books and the writings of JRR Tolkien, yes I read them when I was eight, left me to my own imagination. This has cuased me to become an adult who has a very strong imagination and allows me to go for stretches of time without social interaction. So it's really a question of what came first, the chicken or the exestential egg?

[Joe]

It may not have to do entirely with imagination. I think it is more likely an issue of thinking. I enjoy ideas and thinking and talking about ideas. My thoughts are the most fascinating things in my universe. I do often find myself drifting off during the day, but I zone out with my own thoughts and black out my surrounding environment. Someone who isn't good at think or doesn't like thinking about ideas wouldn't like to be alone.

[AviD]

Don't know if anyone else has made this comment yet (there are just too damn many, and they are not as funny as you)

But an "active" imagination is not necessarily a "good" imagination. That is, one can have a highly active, powerful imagination, that is busy dreaming up nightmarish scenarios or halucinogenic conversations which only take place in your head.
That type of person would actively seek out the company of others, for the exact opposite reason you hypothesize that "good" imaginers would avoid them.
So it's kind of an inverse bell graph: "good" imaginers are happy to be alone, whereas "bad" imaginers prefer not to be - and the level of activity of that imagination only serves to amplify that effect.

Wow, Scott, I really think you're on to something here - totally explains the difference between me and my wife...!!

(Alright, all together now - IAWYAOYH!)

[Emy L. Nosti]

I've freely gone weeks without human interaction and enjoy spending time alone, but I'm not sure I have an incredible imagination. I certainly can entertain myself for hours, but usually I'm thinking about things I've read or new ideas I've had or my own oberservations. I can't visualize well enough to get absorbed in that sort of thought, and my thoughts aren't too far out of real possibility, so I'm not sure if that makes me imaginative. I'm good at thinking outside the box though, if that qualifies.

[Hoppitygibbit]

Yes. Yes. I can spend hours daydreaming all by myself. I often need to get away just to be alone with my thoughts. Mindless drivel from induhviduals drives me nuts.

[Wendy]

Finally! Thanks for pointing this fact out Scott.

My sister is one of those who always has to be doing something and have some kind of outside stimulation while I am one of those who is content to spend hours staring out into space.

I always thought it must be because my sister had a imagination deficit or something but our culture tends to approve of people like this while looking down on people like us.

Now the cat is out of the bag and I hope it's claws puncture a few over-inflated egos. ;)

[Lari]

Well Scott, you might be onto something.

But how would you measure people's imagination reliably?