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Finding and deploying tools you know about (but wouldn't immediately think of) in non-standard ways is a meta-cognitive skill which can be practiced. It's possi
by jacobolus 9y ago
Finding and deploying tools you know about (but wouldn't immediately think of) in non-standard ways is a meta-cognitive skill which can be practiced. It's possible you had some relevant past problem-solving experience which your friend did not. It is also possible that you had systematically been socialized to pursue different high-level strategies toward work – I have many friends who were children of working professionals and were taught to value 'working hard' above looking for shortcuts.
Aside: It's not only the explicit prospect of hours of work that might have stymied your friend... research suggests that when working for a reward people are typically less creative and less thoughtful than when intrinsically motivated (see Alfie Kohn's book Punished by Rewards).
- spc476 9y agoWell, I had helped her with her compiler project a year earlier, but given that we both had experience with lex I'm not sure if we both saw the relevence or not. Your other point makes sense. And your point about hard work really makes since given her background and personality.
- jacobolus 9y agoYou might enjoy Alan Schoenfeld's book Mathematical Problem Solving, which tries to analyze the way that novice problem solvers make a hash of relatively easy 'non-standard' problems, while expert problem solvers prevail, even when the novices have more immediate and direct experience with the required background knowledge for the problem. The biggest difference is that the experts do a lot more planning, introspection, and strategic adjustment along the way, while the novices immediately start down one wrong track and get stuck in the weeds, forgetting what they were trying to do or why.