I do think in both and I feel there are multiple good answers to your question, but one that I find especially interesting is that while I do use words, they don't always mean what they mean in the general language.
So for exapmle when I use them to speak to someone, I usually use them in the common way. I transcribe my thoughts into words only in those ways in which those words are exactly used by other carriers of that language.
However, when I dream or reason about some new or abstract concept, I do still some of the words as anchors to hold on to specific parts of that concept, but I am not too strict about using the words that mean(in the common sense) - those exact parts of the concept. I just find the word that somewhat closely resembles something in that concept and use it. But it is just used as an anchor, to let my mind navigate around that concept. Many times, if I was to try to explain this concept to someone else using those exact same words - they wouldn't understand it, because they would be missing the very specific connections that my mind made just for this concept, for this thinking session. And those change all the time.
If the concept proves itself useful, I will just translate it into regular English (or other language) and write or remember etc. But it happens much later, not during the conception and reasoning stages.
> Are you afraid that thinking in language categories prevents you from accessing deeper truths?
I am not afraid of that and I don't think that it does so necessarily. Because if you use words simply as anchors, you can basically anchor them to any imaginable (as deep as you wish) information or concept or part of the internal world, you are basically not limited by the language. You are just using words as pointers, with arbitrary precision and pointing capability. If I am not limited by the implied requirement for those words to be used in the same way by other people (which I am not during this early stage of thought) - then words can basically be infinitely flexible.
Now I don't usually just use random words either, I automatically finds ones that sort of fit approximately, but this non-strict usage just allows to bend the boundaries and achieve great flexibility.
I do sometimes think without words though, when that just seems more efficient.
So for exapmle when I use them to speak to someone, I usually use them in the common way. I transcribe my thoughts into words only in those ways in which those words are exactly used by other carriers of that language.
However, when I dream or reason about some new or abstract concept, I do still some of the words as anchors to hold on to specific parts of that concept, but I am not too strict about using the words that mean(in the common sense) - those exact parts of the concept. I just find the word that somewhat closely resembles something in that concept and use it. But it is just used as an anchor, to let my mind navigate around that concept. Many times, if I was to try to explain this concept to someone else using those exact same words - they wouldn't understand it, because they would be missing the very specific connections that my mind made just for this concept, for this thinking session. And those change all the time.
If the concept proves itself useful, I will just translate it into regular English (or other language) and write or remember etc. But it happens much later, not during the conception and reasoning stages.
> Are you afraid that thinking in language categories prevents you from accessing deeper truths?
I am not afraid of that and I don't think that it does so necessarily. Because if you use words simply as anchors, you can basically anchor them to any imaginable (as deep as you wish) information or concept or part of the internal world, you are basically not limited by the language. You are just using words as pointers, with arbitrary precision and pointing capability. If I am not limited by the implied requirement for those words to be used in the same way by other people (which I am not during this early stage of thought) - then words can basically be infinitely flexible.
Now I don't usually just use random words either, I automatically finds ones that sort of fit approximately, but this non-strict usage just allows to bend the boundaries and achieve great flexibility.
I do sometimes think without words though, when that just seems more efficient.