I don’t think I qualify as faceblind in a clinical sense, but I’m definitely along that spectrum. There’s like 5 people whose faces I can call up in my “minds eye”, all the rest are just blank spots with hairstyles haha.
I’ve always had a lot of trouble keeping characters straight in movies or TV shows, especially American productions where all the actors look so similar. British or continental europe stuff is better, because they’re not afraid of having less “attractive” but more distinctive looking actors.
Probably also explains why I’ve never seen the appeal of ‘classically’ attractive people - I like being able to find my partner again when I lose him in a crowd!
One of the reasons I gave up on BG (YES HOW DOES ANYONE KEEP THOSE THREE STRAIGHT?!), and other shows, is being so confused on who is who because they picked a ton of actors that look the frigging same. I watch shows to unwind, if I have to focus and really track carefully some little feature that makes them - them, it is the opposite of relaxing. It isn’t that I can’t find something, eventually, to differentiate characters in shows, it’s just counter the point of watching in firstplace
I’ve never been diagnosed with it or anything, I assume because if anyone noticed it when I was a kid they blamed it on my terrible eyesight once they realized how terrible my vision was, and when I got older I just never brought it up to anyone because I assumed it was normal. Lol.
But yeah, I definitely enjoy watching shows made somewhere besides the US, their actors are actually allowed to look like normal people, it definitely makes it easier to tell them apart when they aren’t all covered in makeup to make them look flawless.
That’s like some of my disagreeing identifications: I see the observation, I see what they identified it as, and I think, “But it looks nothing at all like that!” Then, as an afterthought, “Well, except for [one very generic feature].”
i’ve come to realize i’ve got a form of ‘plant synesthesia’. different species ‘feel’ differently, and once i know the species i can even feel what they are as i drive by them and glance them out of the corner of my eye. Weird? Sure. It’s some autism/synesthesia type thing i guess.
My boy is quite similar. He will get his binoculars out before passing a patch of something and is ready to take pictures before he’s even close enough to tell what’s there, while declaring he already knows what will be there. And he’s usually right.
I think it might be about being very observant and remembering what grew in a certain type of area and what didn’t. Just having a very good idea of your surroundings, so much so that it is effortless.
I’ve been going through some older photos and came across a photo of buckthorn. Immediately, my mind went to Rhamnus, the genus for buckthorn. The last time I paid any attention to the Latin name for buckthorn was at least 5 years ago and yet it came to mind easily.
And yet…when someone I’ve just met tells me their name I will have forgotten it within seconds.
Maybe I need to make an iNat style observation of everyone new that I meet in order to remember their name.
One thing that iNat is designed for (but isn’t always successful at) is to encourage people to be skeptical, only be as specific as the evidence allows, and not jump to conclusions. I know having that approach drilled into me has made me less vulnerable to mis/disinformation, and I more often take a measured approach when saying things or drawing conclusions than I used to.
I think overall it’s a good approach to the reams of information and news we’re bombarded with every day.
Hiking in our fynbos, the invasive Australians stand out.
To me it is like being in a crowd, and the voice ‘talking French’ stands out.
Mystifies my hiking companions. (Can’t you see that one doesn’t fit?)
The grammar that was drilled into me regarding participles brought to mind an image of Australian hikers in the fynbos. I suppose they would stand out, too.
I do remember meeting one G’day! Tourists are lost in wonder between landscape and biodiversity. Non-botanising locals miss the small wonders in their wide view.
What I want is one of those science-fiction eyepieces, where I look at someone and it pops up their full name and where I’m supposed to remember them from. But I’ll have to settle for the iNat app for now.
I refer to “growth pattern” of plants. Usually it is the proportions of the components to each other, and I often feel mildly annoyed with only pictures of specific parts with no overlap.