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Will_Newsome comments on Reaching young math/compsci talent - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: lukeprog 02 June 2012 09:07PM

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Comment author: Will_Newsome 03 June 2012 01:54:45AM 5 points [-]

That's cool and a good intro, but you could also have a list of weaker suggestions over ten times that size to show people what sorts of advanced maths &c. might or might not end up being relevant. E.g., a summary paper from the literature on abstract machines, or even extremely young, developing subfields such as quantum algorithmic information theory that teach relevant cognitive-mathematical skills even if they're not quite fundamental to decision theory. This is also a sly way to interest people from diverse advanced disciplines. Is opportunity cost the reason such a list isn't around? My apologies if this question is missing the point of the discussion, and I'm sorry it's only somewhat related to the post, which is an important topic itself.