It can also be how you think. I think like that (speaking to myself) and I'm not a slow thinker, at least I don't think so... The thing is, when speaking doesn't involve muscle movements, and just a stream of word/concept objects it can be much faster, and also doesn't have to be single-threaded (so to say). But from my subjective experience it feels like I'm talking to myself, one word after the other.

I think this is probably how I work too, and people tell me I think very quickly, so I suppose that means I can just talk to myself faster than whatever they are doing, hah. If you don't mind me asking, how are you with math? My mind completely lacks a framework for numbers, so I'm unable to do math (I feel like that might sound insane).

Not who you replied to, but I can relate.

I'm not great at math, but I've trained myself to do basic calculations in my head. I need to concentrate hard and it goes very slow (I'm also a fast thinker for other stuff). I do this because it's a very useful skill in day-to-day life, so worth training.

I once read that many people basically spin up a virtual machine in their mind to do math. That is how it feels to me too. All simulation, no hardware acceleration, so very slow.

I'm really curious what people who are good at math are actually doing. I presume my thinking methodologies are just so far removed from how they think that I'm unable to imagine it, I can hardly even visualize a number never mind manipulate them, it's strange. I couldn't tell time till I was in my early teens, and even then it was a lot of work, and even today I wouldn't exactly call it "automatic".

I was like you for awhile. Was good with with arithmetic but not much more than that. After learning a handful of new languages via total immersion, I found I could learn math much more deeply!

I find listening to podcasts at 1.25-1.5x much easier. I noticed that this speed is much more in line with my internal dialogue.

I also noticed that I need to speed up female speakers more than males. I'm not sure if this is because their cadence tends to be slower, or if it's something about me.