> While walking along the pier, I would write in my head.

So, this makes me wonder if the author tends to subvocalize or has otherwise developed an ability that not everybody's got. Self included; I can't write in my head unless I really force it, for example by pretending to type on an imaginary keyboard.

And this:

> I felt so bombarded by cars honking, vendors yelling, and pedestrians screaming into their cellphones that parts of my brain went offline. Writing in my head was impossible.

...made me wonder if there's a threshold where inner narrative would be more interesting to the brain, but external sensory input becomes unavoidable.

And I wonder if, for photography folks like myself, that threshold is reached a lot faster. Perhaps we are way more sensitive to dopaminergic sensory experiences for example, making us photographer-types by nature. Not even because we prefer it over writing; rather, we can't avoid the visual-sensory impact. Personally I feel like I can even stay indoors and take photos that fascinate me all day long.

Thanks for sharing the article, it's always interesting to read about others' internal processes.