/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9646835
I'm one of the top percent of /sci/ and probably of top colleges too, although I realize just how absurdly good humans can get at math and physics

This may sound strange, but basically I just stare at a problem or think "really hard" about a problem, but I don't actually think at all. I've no idea what's going on really. I'm basically just straining doing nothing, and eventually the answer just comes to me.

>>9646835
There are a lot of mind tricks for memorization. Nothing you posted is new or that interesting compared to what is normally done.

>>9646881
You mean you literally stare at a problem and an answer comes to you? Or do you think about the individual parts and generate the answer from combining them?

I'm very skeptical of the idea that you just sit and stare at an equation and there is no thought process whatsoever and you just automatically get an answer

>>9646881
>>9646835
When I want to remember something I close my eyes and after waiting a bit I'll see an faint and vague image of it. I can't actually remember if the image is true or not. I just have to learn to trust the image.

But the interesting thing of this "straining" doing nothing thinking, is I can apply it to a lot of things. For instance, if someone asks me to come up with an example of spoons related to color in physics, I basically just "strain" and an idea pops into my head

>>9646881
I don't think that's how it works anon

>>9646889
Well not always, but very very often. It's not like I just suddenly realize a computation and see it's 13123, but I'll realize like a deep insight or I'll suddenly understand the problem. But it burns the fuck out of me. I literally will crash after 1 hour of thinking so hard and have to take a nap and eat food.

>>9646890
>too smart to understand own thought process
nice

>>9646891
Anon, I'm telling you it's how it works. I literally got into the top 50 of the Putnam like this. I just stare really fucking hard and suddenly ideas come to me

>>9646881
This

It's EZ

>>9646897
If that's how it works then I suspect intelligence is primarily genetic or heavily conditioned at a young age

I could never do that no matter how much I practiced

>>9646897
i'm jelly but this is hilarious, do you just think too fast to process it or what

>>9646897
I can believe this because it works the same way for me but a bit differently.
the answer doesn't pop into my head until i clear my head.

so if i grind away at a problem at work hard and get nowhere then the answer comes to me during the mind-numbing drive home.

or I think about a problem ad nauseum and get nowhere all night, then go to sleep annoyed that i can't figure out anything and wonder if I'm cut out for this shit after all

then i have a big insight the next morning about 10 minutes after i wake up

>>9646835
>When I'm trying to explicitly remember something however, for instance counting my reps while lifting, I generally think through sound. I repeat the numbers to myself in my head, then I keep the sound in my temporary memory buffer to maintain this memory of my current rep count into the future
>But I just made this realization that instead of storing my current rep count in my temporary sound memory buffer, I can instead store it in my temporary visual memory buffer by visualizing it on a piece of paper for a second and trying to keep that piece of paper in my head while I do my reps. Then, my brain is silent and I'm not "talking" the words of the numbers to myself in my head and instead I'm visualizing the textual representation of the number in my head

>>9646835
I also think vaguely in terms of concepts, this thing is like this, it has this property, so it can't be that way it has to be this way etc. Then it's just a matter of formalizing it when it clicks. Sometimes making it rigorous on paper makes me realize my thought process wasn't quite right though.

>>9646920
Love when this happens. I'll be at the library grinding it out, have a bunch of ideas but nothing is really working. I'll walk home relaxed and casually think about it, and then the realization hits me and it all falls into place. Only happens with something interesting though, a problem worthy of attack fights back.

>>9646887
the point isnt that its new, the point is that op is describing their own mode of thought and is asking for insights into other peoples modes of thought.