player_03 comments on Use the Try Harder, Luke - Less Wrong

59 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 October 2008 10:52AM

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Comment author: gwern 18 July 2014 10:54:31PM 0 points [-]

The fact that his brother said this while passing by means that he spotted a low-hanging fruit. If his brother had spent more time looking before giving the hint, this would have indicated a fruit that was a little higher up.

The brother could have spent arbitrarily much time on the jigsaw puzzle before Claude started playing with it.

Comment author: player_03 20 July 2014 12:18:51AM *  0 points [-]

I suppose, but even then he would have to take time to review the state of the puzzle. You would still expect him to take longer to spot complex details, and perhaps he'd examine a piece or two to refresh his memory.

But that isn't my true rejection here.

If you assume that Claude's brother "spent arbitrarily much time" beforehand, the moral of the story becomes significantly less helpful: "If you're having trouble, spend an arbitrarily large amount of time working on the problem."

Comment author: gwern 20 July 2014 01:49:51PM 2 points [-]

the moral of the story becomes significantly less helpful: "If you're having trouble, spend an arbitrarily large amount of time working on the problem."

I don't think that's what it becomes. It remains what it was: 'a solution exists, and oddly enough, reminding yourself of this is useful'.

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