“Do you have any ideas in mind?”

I was talking with someone recently, and they asked me what ideas I had in mind. I described a visual that had recently come to mind for me, and I then, as a followup to that visual, I added a few ideas as single words.

(I’m very intentionally, not being specific here…)

When I finished—it all took but a few moments—it struck me…

Dude, those single words really are the ideas I want to convey…

But that imagery? It’s exactly the opposite of those ideas. That visual is a terrible idea…

Let’s set aside the confusion I may have caused to my friend. (Although, I did point out that I saw the contradiction.)

It seems to me it’s really rare to have a moment of such clarity around something important: If I hadn’t been explaining it to another person, I might have hung onto that visual imagery.

Where are you hanging on to the wrong details?

ɕ