Hacker News Reader

Comment by Frummy | Hacker News Reader

That’s pretty good. Feynman keeping problems in his mind constantly, like a monk, is easy said but difficult to do. Attention and the harmony required to maintain it, in this day and age, is a few new theorems the reward for that? I guess you have to enjoy the process of working on problems like that as well, to dedicate your attention to it all day long even passively.

View on HN

> problems in his mind constantly, like a monk, is easy said but difficult to do.

You're misunderstanding what's being described - there's nothing monk like about it.

Using myself as an example, you have a couple techniques you're good at (linear programming) and a couple of problems you've tried to solve before but failed (fixed parameter tractable problems). Every time someone tells you about a problem (or you run into one) you try apply the thing you're good at ("will an LP work here"). Every time someone tells you about an approach they took with their problem you try it out on your thing.

It all happens completely automatically/naturally/fluently if you're good at the technique and have actually tried to solve said pet problem. Like I don't need to write code or calculate anything because I know by now exactly where/what my blockers. Conversely I know very quickly when an LP is appropriate because I know the assumptions/requirements very well.

On a lay level, people think I'm a genius because I can finish their unfinished crossword puzzles. But they never see me when I fail to do a crossword puzzle from scratch myself.

I used to be amazed that my dad could finish crosswords when I was a kid until one time as an adult I was sitting across from him at the table and realized that I knew several of the answers that he hadn't figured out yet. I suspect a lot of it is generational too, where the questions get updated for more current events and that makes them more approachable for working aged adults vs the children or the retired class.

I really like an expansion of this idea that I heard somewhere awhile back:

Keep a few significant problems in your mind...and also keep a few significant solutions / problem solving techniques in your mind. Then when you encounter new problems, check them against your set of solutions and see if any of them apply. Also, when you encounter new problem solving techniques, check them against your set of problems to see if they're applicable. Whenever you encounter a new problem or solution that seems unusually significant, add it to the list that you keep track of

> heard somewhere awhile back:

This is verbatim how Feynman describes it in "surely you're joking" (the chapter with spinning plate and QED iirc).

Ahh ok. I think my source was someone else, but it sounds like they were probably citing Feynman. Good to know.

Hamming's _You and Your Research_ (another HN perennial) has a variant on the theme too:

"Most great scientists know many important problems. They have something between 10 and 20 important problems for which they are looking for an attack. And when they see a new idea come up, one hears them say ``Well that bears on this problem.'' They drop all the other things and get after it. "

A simple way to do that is to write your problems down somewhere where they are seen often, with a simple command at the top like:

Solve these:

or a question to kick start this like:

What is the solution to these problems:

You'll quickly reach the point where you are ignoring what is written, but the subtle visual reminder will keep a small portion of your mind churning away at them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com