Comment by jefa on "Metastrategic Brainstorming", a core building-block skill · 2024-06-11T11:50:47.999Z · LW · GW

I enjoyed this post, thanks.  Although I have never explicitly used this technique, I think the Lotus Blossom method of idea generation and problem solving is probably the best visualization of how I intuitively approach complex problem solving.  

Comment by jefa on Why you should learn a musical instrument · 2024-05-16T00:24:14.842Z · LW · GW

First time poster, he humbly said...  Glad to be here though.  As a musician, I figured I could chime in on this subject.

Playing the guitar was a tool for developing my intuition. I couldn’t read sheet music.   I needed to feel the music.  I would feel something within myself, and then translate that into music through the guitar.  I would play intuitively.  Hear the music in your head, feel the emotion of the song that you want to express, then translate what you feel into playing the guitar through feel not through cognitively reading sheet music.

Once you get past the basics of learning chords, scales, basic rhythm and playing techniques...  It became about the feeling.  As far as the cramping hands, and blistered fingers... ;)  Goes with the territory, but it goes away after a bit.  ;)