Starting University Advice Repository

Bryan-san

I know quite a few (12+) rationalists and CFAR graduates who are entering University soon or have just recently started University.

There was a lot of advice I wish I had been given or heard before I entered University and I think having a good repository of rationalist-contributed knowledge/advice/suggestions/information/links/DireWarnings could be very helpful to people in that situation.

1. What advice do students starting University need to hear?

2. What advice did your past self need to hear or what advice would have benefited you at that point in time?

3. Many people fail to ask the right questions. What questions do students need to ask themselves and other people?

Any links or guides on any related topics would be helpful. I will be posting some of my own ideas and links in the comments.

Possibly Relevant Repositories

Life Advice Repository

Boring Advice Repository

Grad Student Advice Repository

Repository Repository

I know quite a few (12+) rationalists and CFAR graduates who are entering University soon or have just recently started University.

1. What advice do students starting University need to hear?

2. What advice did your past self need to hear or what advice would have benefited you at that point in time?

3. Many people fail to ask the right questions. What questions do students need to ask themselves and other people?

Any links or guides on any related topics would be helpful. I will be posting some of my own ideas and links in the comments.

Possibly Relevant Repositories

Life Advice Repository

Boring Advice Repository

Grad Student Advice Repository

Repository Repository

I don't care about IQ, I think it's a fairly uninformative number. Doing proofs eventually gives you a nebulous thing called "mathematical sophistication" (what I sometimes call "metal struts in your brain") that I think helps enormously for adapting to and solving novel technical problems.

When Heinlein said "specialization is for insects" I think he was making a similar point about metaskills.

I don't mean IQ as a number, I mean the underlying g.

And people who graduate college and start working neither do, nor are expected to "solve novel technical problems". The closest to that are programmers who do have to solve problems daily, but for them courses in e.g. data structures or just experience with radically different languages will develop much more useful intuitions than "mathematical sophistication".

If you are going to become a mathematician or a logician, by all means go study proofs. Otherwise I don't think they justify ... (read more)

17

Starting University Advice Repository

17

17

17

Starting University Advice Repository

17

17