What is thought?
Initially, for example, in animals, thought is a sequence of images. Let's say an antelope sees a Cheetah or a lion, and then she flashes in her head a few images, what, we do not know exactly, but presumably it is three images: the image of the predator, the image of horror (death), the image of running. Thus, even in animals there are conclusions, for example, that there is a predator nearby, which is dangerous and it is necessary to run.
What does man have? Man also thinks in images, but these images attached additional information, namely, speech. That is, if the antelope's idea is a sequence of “pictures”, the person these photos are signed. Why does a person additionally encode his images into words? Of course, so that he could convey this image to another person by means of a verbal code.
But why then do we encode images into words, even when there are no other people around?
The fact is that a person has such a developed brain that he is able to simulate another person inside himself. So when you think, you are actually talking to some abstract interlocutor, who may even be trying to contradict you and looking for weaknesses in your thoughts.
Plus, people have not stopped thinking in images, and continues to do so. It is well known to drivers who do not encode their thoughts into words, because they simply do not have time for this. The driver sees the approaching car and, like the antelope in the previous example, tries to avoid the collision without trying to translate what is happening into words. Describes what is happening he then and usually not too censorial.
We think in images even when we are dealing with abstract concepts, such as mathematics. Just for them we construct some special image. By the way, these images can be not only visual, but, for example, auditory or olfactory. I personally know a person who remembers phone numbers by their musical sound, that is, he encodes them into notes.
In our understanding, thought is something described in words. That is, for people, thought is only something that can be transferred to another person. But it can be very difficult to encode an image into a thought, and everyone who has tried to write a text knows this. This is where beginning writers come across who have a wonderful image of the book in their head, but as soon as they try to translate this image into words, they fail.
Back to thinking.
Thought is a sequence of images, that is, a pattern. For example, if I start thinking about vacation, I have the following images: “summer”, “swimming”, “delicious food”, “sun”, “idleness” and many other things... but the point is that when I start thinking about vacation, my thoughts inevitably relate to these topics. This applies to any topic of reflection, any topic has a limited number of images.
Everyone has their own set of favorite thoughts. Take thoughts about work. Any work activity consists of 20-30 operations (on average). Accordingly, the thoughts in the framework of this work will be 20-30 (maximum), most of which, at the same time, we did not come up with ourselves, but received from someone in a coded (verbal) form.
It seems to us that each of our thoughts is unique, although in fact we have thought each thousands of times. Come up with a really new idea is very difficult and this skill is very appreciated in the modern world. People who can do that, we call geniuses.
Let's count how many thoughts the average person has in his head? First, let's count the areas of activity in which the average adult is involved. These areas are: work (20-30 operations), leisure (4-5 ways of relaxation and 20 standard conversation), sex (5-6 views, 3-4 equipment, 10 stories), purchase of products and payment of invoices (30 operations, 10-15 standard of conversation), relationship with significant others (15-20 standard reactions to standard stimuli), parenting (10 reactions to their behavior), the situation in the world (10 views), view of the world (3-5 theories about the world).
We take, conditionally, on each activity on 20-30 thoughts and we receive that the average person operates approximately three hundred thoughts, as a rule, not too difficult. And this figure is still optimistic. At the same time, human capabilities are much, much, much, more. But very few people go beyond that limit.
This does not mean that man is simply made. First, we do not know what kind of 300 thoughts a person has in his head, and how they are related. The man himself does not know. It is also important to remember that one is constantly assimilating new thoughts and forgetting old ones. As a rule, a young person every year is replaced by 10-20 thoughts, the elderly-much less (1-5). But this does not mean that in 30 years a person changes completely, only 30 percent of thoughts are changed, the rest are stable throughout adult life (although they can be changed).
Agree that 300 thoughts are easy enough to list(if they are described in words) and a little more difficult if they are in images.
You can object to me that you leave 10 comments on the Internet every day, and they are unique. No, they're not unique. Very often we put in them the same our views, because of what our texts may differ only slightly in form.
Try the experiment
Each week, take a topic, such as work, and write down briefly what you said or thought during the week as part of that activity. Then take the next subject. Don't reread what you wrote. Once you have covered all the topics (choose the 10 topics you spend the most time on), go through the circle again. You will be very surprised, but your thoughts in different periods of time on the same topics will coincide almost verbatim.