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Intuitively, there are absolutely different forms of "intelligence". One simple example is the ability to visualize things in your head. I love the game of Ch

by xedrac 4y ago

Intuitively, there are absolutely different forms of "intelligence". One simple example is the ability to visualize things in your head. I love the game of Chess, but no matter how many years I spend trying to visualize the board, I simply cannot "see" it in its entirety and visualize pieces moving on it. However, you look at any Grandmaster, and they will intentionally look away from the physical board in order to calculate many variations and see things more clearly, because looking at the physical board is a distraction since the pieces don't move. I once met a guy that could draw the most amazing things, seemingly straight out of his own imagination. I asked him how he was able to do that, and he just said "I see a picture of it in my head, and I replicate it." Try as I might, I simply cannot visualize things like that. That might explain why I struggle to draw or whiteboard anything without using a visual reference.

knaik94 4y ago
Reaching that level of expertise requires hours and hours of practice. I will just recommend you read https://www.wired.com/2010/11/the-cognitive-cost-of-expertise/ https://www.wired.com/2010/11/the-cognitive-cost-of-expertis... [1]. The actual cognitive load of imagining variations is higher at every level of play, I personally don't find it easier when looking away, but I am not a grandmaster. I think an alterative explanation is that they simply want to refresh their internal model and make sure they are not simply overlooking any positions that may lead to a blunder. I think it's unfair to compare yourself to an artist at that skill level because you can't judge the amount of hours it took to get to the level of being able to translate what they imagine onto paper. I mentor all the time and the hardest is when I have to explain to kids starting out CS how I "know" what to do when I have to go from a figma mockup to a working proof of concept code. I don't know how, other than that it feels more like muscle memory than it does actual thinking. It's hard because even I don't know all of the little things I needed to learn to accomplish my goal. [1]>"Groot's first experiment seemed to confirm this theory: He placed twenty different pieces on a chess board, imitating the layout of a possible game. Then, de Groot asked a variety of chess players, from inexperienced amateurs to chess grandmasters, to quickly glance at the board and try to memorize the location of each piece. As the scientists expected, the amateurs drew mostly blanks. The grandmasters, however, easily reproduced the exact layout of the game. The equation seemed simple: memory equals talent. But then de Groot performed a second experiment that changed everything. Instead of setting the pieces in patterns taken from an actual chess game, he randomly scattered the pawns and bishops and knights on the board. If the best chess players had enhanced memories, then the location shouldn’t matter: a pawn was still a pawn. To de Groot’s surprise, however, the grandmaster edge now disappeared. They could no longer remember where the pieces had been placed."

by xedrac 4y ago

knaik94 4y ago

Reaching that level of expertise requires hours and hours of practice. I will just recommend you read https://www.wired.com/2010/11/the-cognitive-cost-of-expertise/ https://www.wired.com/2010/11/the-cognitive-cost-of-expertis... [1]. The actual cognitive load of imagining variations is higher at every level of play, I personally don't find it easier when looking away, but I am not a grandmaster. I think an alterative explanation is that they simply want to refresh their internal model and make sure they are not simply overlooking any positions that may lead to a blunder. I think it's unfair to compare yourself to an artist at that skill level because you can't judge the amount of hours it took to get to the level of being able to translate what they imagine onto paper. I mentor all the time and the hardest is when I have to explain to kids starting out CS how I "know" what to do when I have to go from a figma mockup to a working proof of concept code. I don't know how, other than that it feels more like muscle memory than it does actual thinking. It's hard because even I don't know all of the little things I needed to learn to accomplish my goal. [1]>"Groot's first experiment seemed to confirm this theory: He placed twenty different pieces on a chess board, imitating the layout of a possible game. Then, de Groot asked a variety of chess players, from inexperienced amateurs to chess grandmasters, to quickly glance at the board and try to memorize the location of each piece. As the scientists expected, the amateurs drew mostly blanks. The grandmasters, however, easily reproduced the exact layout of the game. The equation seemed simple: memory equals talent. But then de Groot performed a second experiment that changed everything. Instead of setting the pieces in patterns taken from an actual chess game, he randomly scattered the pawns and bishops and knights on the board. If the best chess players had enhanced memories, then the location shouldn’t matter: a pawn was still a pawn. To de Groot’s surprise, however, the grandmaster edge now disappeared. They could no longer remember where the pieces had been placed."