The link between language and cognition is a red herring
We don&#x27;t think in terms of language. Language is simply a translation layer for the underlying neurological phenomenon. It feels like we think in language because we tend to <i>understand</i> concepts after they&#x27;ve been turned into words.<p>I can turn this off and just compare the word referents to each other. In fact, I have to in order to get any serious thinking done. Translating to and from words just introduces friction.<p>The tradeoff to doing this is that the end product insight is not at all relatable to other humans, it&#x27;s some deep deep link into my subconscious that&#x27;s extremely abstract.<p>Sometimes I&#x27;ll conjure up, in my head, an imaginary conversation partner, and converse with them. Then I will use words, because the point is to use the other person as a clarifying foil. I&#x27;ll hew to the rules of human logic, and make points that they can follow. In my own head, I don&#x27;t have to use the same logic everyone else does. To me, human logic presents as a strict subset of rules of my logic, but still &quot;logic-complete&quot; in that I can represent most of my findings in semantic form given enough time to find the right &#x27;compilation&#x27;.<p>I believe that language is in the process of deeply integrating into the brain and still isn&#x27;t really done yet. People have tricks that they use in order to increase the compression rate of words. Narrative for instance. But we still have trouble reaching for words when we need them. I think the language part moves in parallel to the rest of the brain, silently translating thoughts and presenting them to the executive function. (what you think of as you) Thoughts are multi-dimensional, whereas words have many fewer.<p>In the future, we&#x27;ll become more strongly aware of the limitations semantics places on articulation. People tend to get too hung up on what words mean, and discussions will often digress to the moors of semantic posturing.