Acadia - I have a trick I use with engineers who don't "see" what is in front of them. You might try it.

They often show me their code that is clearly broken but they don't know why and ask me to help them find what they did wrong. I usually do nothing. I make them read me the code out loud, and also explain what is being done, out loud. They often find their mistake the moment they say the words.

Similarly, when they fail to follow written instructions, I ask them to read the instructions out loud and think about what they're hearing, not what they're reading. Even thought the two are the same, the attention shifts to a different part of the brain and understanding increases for some people.

I know this is true for me as well. This is why I have trouble reading math formulas that use Greek letters. I can't "say" the letters because I don't know what they are. And so I can't "hear" the formula and it makes no sense to me.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)