A year ago, I started trying to deliberate practice skills that would "help people figure out the answers to confusing, important questions." I experimented with Thinking Physics questions, GPQA questions, Puzzle Games , Strategy Games, and a stupid twitchy reflex game I had struggled to beat for 8 years[1]. Then I went back to my day job and tried figuring stuff out there too.

The most important skill I was trying to learn was Metastrategic Brainstorming[2] – the skill of looking at a confusing, hopeless situation, and nonetheless brainstorming useful ways to get traction or avoid wasted motion.

Normally, when you want to get good at something, it's great to stand on the shoulders of giants and copy all the existing techniques. But this is challenging if you're trying to solve important, confusing problems because there probably isn't (much) established wisdom on how to solve it. You may [...]

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Outline:

(02:33) Taking breaks, or naps

(03:25) Working Memory facility

(04:56) Patience

(06:17) Know what deconfusion, or having a crisp understanding feels like

(07:50) Actually Fucking Backchain

(10:00) Ask Whats My Goal?

(11:09) Always have at least 3 hypotheses

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 18th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/thc4RemfLcM5AdJDa/skills-from-a-year-of-purposeful-rationality-practice

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.