I posted the following in response to Kandace's Listen to the Voices post, and rather liked it. So here it is again:

I think most people start out with their version of the voices. As our brains form and re-form, and we build up in our heads an idea of what is and isn't real, we think about a lot of tangential things. Sure, we now know that brain plasticity doesn't cease entirely in adulthood, but those times are the ones most people can look back on and recall a sense of adventure. A certain look-around-corners-ness that makes you hum songs about all the gestures you've ever seen, or wonder what naming scheme you'd use for raindrops.

As we age, we establish strong patterns that allow us to get on with things without having to really be consciously present, and I think people who tend to do less of the voices thing are naturally better at that. They're able to optimise their connections and focus on whatever it is they want to do with themselves.

And then there are the people who are focused on the tangents. Seeing where the patterns skip and looking for the pieces you might have missed before (which is how I think about my own creative urges). I feel like my brain is a whole bunch of iron filings, and the world is a magnet that gets dragged over them on a regular basis. Or sometimes I feel like it is the other way around, and I have the magnet in my brain (no tinfoil hat, though).

And I think that is why people often associate those kinds of experiences with being like a kid - because you are still in that phase on making connections, of playing with the blocks in your head.

I do find that when I focus on my other skills - the cubicle farm ones - that it leaves less space in my brain for playing with the blocks. Which I am sad about. But I make room where I can.