set of cards

post by November H (november-h) · 2018-03-05T22:37:49.240Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

Contents

3 comments

I think it'd be helpful to me (maybe others) to make a set of cards to aid in problem solving, but I'd like to get feedback on what people think and suggestions (as well as find similar projects if they're around). What I'm thinking is a few different types - one would be a set of heuristics for problem solving when you've gotten stuck.

The idea would be to pull a card, try the approach it suggests if acceptable, and move it to the 'tried' pile if the problem is still unsolved. There might even be some process of promotion, like adding heuristics that worked for you to the top of the deck, and putting the 'dead' pile on the bottom of the deck. Another might be a set of fallacies.

I was thinking one for emotions, although I'm less sure about this one, to check in with your feelings - things to be mindful of regarding each of them, like I notice anger seems to be kind of a defensive emotion that comes up when I feel ripped off or infringed upon. With anger I feel like it'd be helpful to ask, "what was infringed?", etc. So with those it might be helpful to pick all the ones you feel about a situation. I guess the analogy I'm kind of going for here is a sort of 'tarot' deck that rather than predicting the future, helps you deal with uncertainty constructively and somewhat methodically.

Obviously not a substitute for thinking but a supplement to it. I was thinking for the starting heuristics to go with the ones from polya's "how to solve it" and maybe some others. I'd like it to include some that a person might forget in focusing on solving the problem but might be important to consider, like, "is it acceptable to cheat? Is there a way to cheat?", "Do you have to solve this problem? Can you give up?" etc.

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comment by Robert Miles (robert-miles) · 2018-03-07T16:37:46.375Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

This idea reminds me very much of Oblique Strategies. I guess the idea of that set of cards is to help with creative work - you draw a card when you're feeling stuck or uninspired, and the cards say something oblique like "not building a wall, making a brick", allowing you to give your thoughts a big shove in a pretty arbitrary direction in thought-space, which can push you out of a local optimum and get things moving again.

Inspired by this, I've thought about trying to do exactly what you're doing, and I can share the list I wrote down (with no claims whatsoever about their quality or suitability):

  • Compare the outside and inside views
  • Has this problem been solved before?
  • Is this the right problem to solve?
  • Have you tried the obvious things?
  • Ask someone else for obvious things to try
  • Your future self visits to tell you your plan failed. What went wrong?
  • Who would be better at this than you? Pick a specific person. What would they do?
  • Stop and make a list or two
  • Consider the opportunity costs
  • What are you avoiding thinking about?
  • Be more specific
  • Name three examples
  • Come up with a concrete example
  • Why are you drawing a card? Ask yourself "why?" to the response, 4 more times.
  • What would convince you that you are wrong?
  • What assumptions are you relying on?
  • What other problem is this most similar to?
  • Do a Fermi calculation
  • Go meta
  • Separate the parts of you that disagree, and let them have a conversation
  • Break the problem into smaller sub-problems
  • Take the contrapositive
comment by Trevor Hill-Hand (trevor-hill-hand) · 2018-03-06T03:01:02.476Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'd be interested in seeing the output, yes! I'd be willing to help with the graphic design so you could throw them up on Game Crafter or something.