I’m a little sad nobody with the relevant mathematics background has jumped in. These puzzles are considered; a simple version is the lion-hunting-man where both have the same speed and infinite turning speed (eg, this paper, where the arena they play in varies).
Very cool. I love that it exists, I love humanity that some of us are capable of understanding, or even generating such things, but wow. Some people are a lot smarter than me.
If it’s any consolation, you are almost certainly within ~3 years of understanding the solution and a dozen variants. It’s not a super deep area. Probably doesn’t really require calculus (you need continuous as in ‘the lion doesn’t teleport; that’s cheating’, but I think not much more).
While we aren’t all the same, there’s a difference between things that require holding 8 complicated things in mind at once, and things that require a little language learning and the intelligence to solve a crossword. This is closer to the latter - like doing a crossword in Spanish. You need to know a bunch of little things, but learning them is basically all tedium and not brilliant insights. (Taking these puzzles, creating a dozen new variants, and solving all of those probably does require managing a lot of complexity. But to understand the work of others, is not so bad)
Agreed. I think “Flowers for Algernon” hit me hard. And I had an experience in college where I accidentally took a philosophy class called “Critical Theory Since Plato” when I first realized that I’m not very smart, just a little above average, and some people live life on a while different level than I do.
And don’t get me started on “Electromechanical Wave Theory,” a book I bought from Goodwill. I wanted to learn more about that, but I think it was written by aliens.
You can be smarter than you are now. Effort will reward you. Take a peek at the growth mindset. I think Hubberman did a podcast on it, and his content is usually of good tier.
I’m a little sad nobody with the relevant mathematics background has jumped in. These puzzles are considered; a simple version is the lion-hunting-man where both have the same speed and infinite turning speed (eg, this paper, where the arena they play in varies).
Very cool. I love that it exists, I love humanity that some of us are capable of understanding, or even generating such things, but wow. Some people are a lot smarter than me.
If it’s any consolation, you are almost certainly within ~3 years of understanding the solution and a dozen variants. It’s not a super deep area. Probably doesn’t really require calculus (you need continuous as in ‘the lion doesn’t teleport; that’s cheating’, but I think not much more).
We must always consider capability. If it requires 3 quarts of understanding and I’ve only got a 1/2 gallon container, it’s not all getting in there.
We aren’t all the same. I am content that there are people way smarter than me. I’ve met some. They’re usually cool.
Fortunately containers can get bigger =)
While we aren’t all the same, there’s a difference between things that require holding 8 complicated things in mind at once, and things that require a little language learning and the intelligence to solve a crossword. This is closer to the latter - like doing a crossword in Spanish. You need to know a bunch of little things, but learning them is basically all tedium and not brilliant insights. (Taking these puzzles, creating a dozen new variants, and solving all of those probably does require managing a lot of complexity. But to understand the work of others, is not so bad)
Agreed. I think “Flowers for Algernon” hit me hard. And I had an experience in college where I accidentally took a philosophy class called “Critical Theory Since Plato” when I first realized that I’m not very smart, just a little above average, and some people live life on a while different level than I do.
And don’t get me started on “Electromechanical Wave Theory,” a book I bought from Goodwill. I wanted to learn more about that, but I think it was written by aliens.
You can be smarter than you are now. Effort will reward you. Take a peek at the growth mindset. I think Hubberman did a podcast on it, and his content is usually of good tier.