I want to develop rationality training, which is aimed at solving confusing problems.

Two key problems with "confusing problems" are:

You might feel so confused and overwhelmed that you bounce off completely.
You might be confused about what counts as progress, or where the most progress is possible, and accidentally work on the wrong thing.

A skill that helps with both of these is "metastrategic brainstorming" – the art of generating lots of potential good approaches, and then choosing approaches that are likely to help.

Different situations call for different sorts of strategies. If a problem is confusing, you probably don't have a simple playbook for dealing with it. Different people also benefit from different sorts of strategies. So, while I can tell you a list of potential mental tools, what I most want you to practice is the art of identifying what would help you, in [...]

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Outline:

(03:54) Example: Writing this Blogpost

(07:36) Suggested Exercises

(09:28) Appendix: Existing available puzzles/games Ive used

(09:35) Thinking Physics

(10:02) Games

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First published:
June 11th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cbWoMepny3Jo9XqEr/metastrategic-brainstorming-a-core-building-block-skill

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“‘Metastrategic Brainstorming’, a core building-block skill” by Raemon

LessWrong (30+ Karma)