CronoDAS comments on Procedural Knowledge Gaps - Less Wrong

126 Post author: Alicorn 08 February 2011 03:17AM

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Comment author: CronoDAS 08 February 2011 10:22:55AM *  1 point [-]

Oddly enough, I seem to "just know" this automatically and extremely quickly. On the other hand, I am sometimes at a loss for a while when I have to do mental arithmetic.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 08 February 2011 04:51:51PM 1 point [-]

I've never really thought about it before, but I'm pretty sure I "just know" as well, in most cases. I think there's a bit of ambiguity from P through U, (if you asked me whether Q or T came first, I'd have to think about it for a second), so that suggests that certain parts of the alphabet are easier for my brain to sequence than others.

Comment author: TobyBartels 08 February 2011 08:58:41PM 1 point [-]

I also just know it, even with the same range (‘P’–‘U’) of uncertainty. (And yes, I'd composed enough of this reply before reading the parent comment that this is an independent datum.) I sometimes even mix up ‘R’ and ‘S’ after thinking about it. (I never go back to the song, although I certainly do know that too.) I have been known to touch-type the alphabet in order when checking out a new font.

This has been useful to me. As a teacher, I alphabetise papers before recording grades, and it's handy to be able to do this quickly and correctly. (I'm pretty sure that I just knew it before I started regularly using that knowledge, however.)