I have on numerous occasions presented problems to others, after giving them careful thought, and had them reply instantly with the correct answer. Usually the next question is “why didn’t I think of that?” which sometimes has an obvious answer and sometimes doesn’t.
My favorite remains Eliezer asking me the question “why don’t you just use log likelihood?” I still don’t have a good answer to why I needed the question!
I don’t think that de Maistre’s “quick answers” category is supposed to include answers based on sound expertise.
People are often confused about questions to which an expert in the relevant area will give a quick and reliably correct answer. However, an expert capable of answering a technical question competently is not someone who has “considered [the question] only briefly or not at all”: he is in fact someone who has spent a great deal of time and effort (along with possessing the necessary talent) on understanding a broad class of questions that subsumes the one being asked.
I have on numerous occasions presented problems to others, after giving them careful thought, and had them reply instantly with the correct answer. Usually the next question is “why didn’t I think of that?” which sometimes has an obvious answer and sometimes doesn’t.
My favorite remains Eliezer asking me the question “why don’t you just use log likelihood?” I still don’t have a good answer to why I needed the question!
I don’t think that de Maistre’s “quick answers” category is supposed to include answers based on sound expertise.
People are often confused about questions to which an expert in the relevant area will give a quick and reliably correct answer. However, an expert capable of answering a technical question competently is not someone who has “considered [the question] only briefly or not at all”: he is in fact someone who has spent a great deal of time and effort (along with possessing the necessary talent) on understanding a broad class of questions that subsumes the one being asked.