Ultimately, I don’t want to solve complex problems via laborious, complex thinking, if we can help it. Ideally, I'd want to basically intuitively follow the right path to the answer quickly, with barely any effort at all.

For a few months I've been experimenting with the "How Could I have Thought That Thought Faster?" concept, originally described in a twitter thread by Eliezer:

Sarah Constantin: I really liked this example of an introspective process, in this case about the "life problem" of scheduling dates and later canceling them: malcolmocean.com/2021/08/int…

Eliezer Yudkowsky: See, if I'd noticed myself doing anything remotely like that, I'd go back, figure out which steps of thought were actually performing intrinsically necessary cognitive work, and then retrain myself to perform only those steps over the course of 30 seconds.

SC: if you have done anything REMOTELY like training yourself to do it in 30 seconds, then [...]

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Outline:

(03:59) Example: 10x UI designers

(08:48) THE EXERCISE

(10:49) Part I: Thinking it Faster

(10:54) Steps you actually took

(11:02) Magical superintelligence steps

(11:22) Iterate on those lists

(12:25) Generalizing, and not Overgeneralizing

(14:49) Skills into Principles

(16:03) Part II: Thinking It Faster The First Time

(17:30) Generalizing from this exercise

(17:55) Anticipating Future Life Lessons

(18:45) Getting Detailed, and TAPS

(20:10) Part III: The Five Minute Version

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First published:
December 11th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/F9WyMPK4J3JFrxrSA/the-think-it-faster-exercise

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.