Does typing out your question help you come up with an answer?

yep that’s happened to me
It’s kind of the same as trying to do a difficult math problem in your head. You have to write it out to see how to answer it.

If it’s the kind of question where I want a direct, problem solving answer, than yes typing it out does turn on the light bulb occasionally. I find it irritating. Answers from other people are much more fun then from my own brain.

That happens to me all the time! Even if it’s a start-a-discussion kind of question I tend to think about what the answers will be to the point that I never end up posting the question… It’s very strange.

It has been said that the thought process is not complete without articulation, so it makes sense that writing, which is a form of articulation, would help to complete the thought and give it access, so to speak, to the next step, which it couldn’t have until that point.

I’m so self-critical that 95% of what I would post as a question never gets written. I’ve started dozens of times, looked at what I was writing and decided that it wasn’t “up to Fluther standards”. My typing skills are so poor that the checking process alone inhibits me.

99% of the time, i already know the answer to the question i am asking. typing has nothing to do with it at all.

Yes! I was thinking out how I would phrase my fluther question about what to get my dad for Christmas when 2 or 3 perfect solutions came to me. I never ended up asking the question, and he loved the Ghirardelli chocolate, by the way. :)