Dr. David Eagleman

He doesn't picture anything in his head.

So he ended up giving this questionnaire to everybody at Pixar.

And it turns out most of his best directors and animators are aphantasic.

They don't see anything in their head.

And nobody, I think, would have predicted that because it seems so strange to this visual magisterium of Pixar.

But I have a hypothesis about why this is.

It's because the kid who grows up who's aphantasic

When they're asked, okay, draw a horse, you know, the kid sitting next to them who's hyper-fantasic says, oh, I know what a horse looks like and just draws it.

But the poor aphantasia kid has to really stare and figure out, like, okay, how does that work and so on.

And they get better at drawing as a result.

And that's why all his best animators and drawers are people who grew up aphantasic.

Well, they have a dialogue with the page.

So if you're a guy drawing and, you know, you're looking at the horse or you're picturing what, you know, Ariel the mermaid looks like or whatever, you're trying lines and scratching and doing things.

You don't come to the table or say, oh, I know what a mermaid looks like and you draw it.

So they just end up getting more practice and they get better at it.

I'd say a couple of things.

One is we're clearly predisposed to particular things.

And so, for example, I'd like to be a swimmer as good as Michael Phelps, but I just don't have the wingspan that he does.

He's got like, I don't know, seven feet between his fingertips or something.

Jesus.