I sometimes think interestingness and importance of problems are inversely related
Interestingness = k/importance
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Depends on the frame of reference. The problems non-scientists consider important are usually tackled by motivated scientists because of their interestingness to them.
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And vice versus — most scientists won’t touch psychic phenomena or UFOs despite their being some of the most intensely interesting, potentially revolutionary subjects out there.
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Maybe low interestingness is a way problems defend themselves from being solved.
(I’m pretty sure ideas have a survival instinct)
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Interesting to who?
If interesting to too many people, it's an inverse signal - truly interesting problems which are *that* accessible tend to get solved quickly.
But interesting to a select group of themselves-interesting people, that's different.
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Any problem whose interestingness is sufficiently obvious has been deeply investigated before the importance has been made legible
I'm not sure if this is an alternate idea or a corollary, but:
It's only by investigating interesting problems that we understand their importance.
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Very possible!
I.e. do the boring stuff you hate first and save the interesting stuff as a reward for later as it’s almost always not as important
Aka, eat your vegetables first and then you can maybe have the candy
Unrelated: Just heard my mom yelling at me in my head
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If you want to compete with the most creative, driven techies in the universe, try to get a job in video games. Cuz games are interesting to build.







