tgb comments on Most transferable skills? - Less Wrong

16 Post author: kalla724 11 May 2012 09:58PM

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Comment author: tgb 13 May 2012 02:40:37AM 5 points [-]

Fermi problems: making a quick order-of-magnitude estimate of a quantity based on rough, but guessable quantities. Not only is this immensely fun, it has many practical applications to quickly rule out unrealistic hypotheses. Solving these in real-life situations (they come up surprisingly often) may also impressive others - your mileage may very, of course.

Dimensional Analysis: either checking the units of a possible answer, or guessing a formula based off the only likely possibility that gives the necessary units. Look at Street Fighting Mathematics section "Dimensions" for some great applications.