Description du poste
In a world where much of the Systems-2 thinking is done by agents, I find myself more and more going towards cognitive atrophy. Even in my daily work, most of my tasks are superbly executed by autonomous agents while I sit there staring at my screen. The dopamine rush that I used to get while once solving a bug, writing significant code, or thinking something from first principles is fading.
Eventually I might lose this ability forever, and hence one fine day I thought to myself to make a list of all the things (activities/skills whatever you may say) I can do to get that control back. This by no means is exhaustive; however, I have tried to cover a wide variety spanning mathematics, logical thinking, programming, and problem solving in general.
Please feel free to suggest more in the comments.
Here's the list.
• Try making forcasts about actual real events. Assign them probabilities, write down your reasoning, and revisit them when the outcomes are known. See Metaculus• Solve a puzzle hunt where you must first figure out the rules of each puzzle. See MIT Mystery Hunt Archive• One of my favorites is to try to decipher an unfamiliar language with examples. Work out its grammar and translate sentences you have never seen. Try International Linguistics Olympiad problems• Building a defensible model from incomplete information and trying to estimate something that almost seems impossible to know exactly. Talking about Fermi Estimation here.• If you love coding, try competitive programming. (SPOJ and CSES are good places to start.)• If you love mathematics, start solving olympiad problems (start here)• If you really love mathematics, you should try writing detailed proofs of mathematical theorems from first principles. If you’re new to proof-writing, start with Book of Proof. For an extra challenge, try formalizing your proofs using Lean.• If you love coding & mathematics, try solving Project Euler• Learn a card game that requires reasoning about hidden information, s