I know his name. I chose my words carefully. Neither "Yvain" nor "Scott Alexander" is his actual exact real name, any more than (say) "Martin Luther" was Martin Luther King's actual exact real name.
You're treating "exact" as "the complete string of characters present on the birth certificate". I'm treating "exact" as "perfectly matches one of the space-delimited words in that string". "Martin" was an actual exact real name of MLK, by my lights.
I feel I've learned a lot about problem solving from less wrong (and HPMOR in particular). be concrete, hold off on proposing solutions, et cetera. The effect*, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be as much as I had hoped.
Small increases in intelligence are extremely general and even recursive, so it feels worth the effort. But, I found alternatives much more effective (though still modest) then studying/discussing/applying the sequences. like meditation or smart drugs.
I'm interested in other lesswrongers experiences in cognitive enhancement.
* by "smarter" I mean "better at problem solving", where examples of "problems" are writing a program, finding the right thing to say to resolve interpersonal conflict, memorizing some random fact quickly and then recalling it quickly/vividly. let me know if you want further clarification.