I can't think of any combination of symbols placed on paper that would have bypassed Luke's filters here...
Maybe the combination of symbols could tell Luke to do some trivially easy thing, then ramp up the difficulty.
Maybe the combination of symbols could tell Luke to do some trivially easy thing, then ramp up the difficulty.
Maybe you should ask Luke whether he thinks that would have worked.
My guess is, that's exactly what the books he read, actually did.
Really, asking someone in that state to even stop reading long enough to answer some questions mentally, even without writing them down, is not going to work. You might be able to get some hurried answers, but not much deep thought. They're too excited about what else they might "learn" next.
I even know ...
LW doesn't seem to have a discussion of the article Epiphany Addiction, by Chris at succeedsocially. First paragraph:
I like that article because it describes a dangerous failure mode of smart people. One example was the self-help blog of Phillip Eby (pjeby), where each new post seemed to bring new amazing insights, and after a while you became jaded. An even better, though controversial, example could be Eliezer's Sequences, if you view them as a series of epiphanies about AI research that didn't lead to much tangible progress. (Please don't make that statement the sole focus of discussion!)
The underlying problem seems to be that people get a rush of power from neat-sounding realizations, and mistake that feeling for actual power. I don't know any good remedy for that, but being aware of the problem could help.