HPMOR fan-fiction by taogaming https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11223914/1/Draco-Malfoy-and-the-Practice-of-Rationality

Excerpt

"All of these (rationalism) ideas," said Neville, "they let us check a solution. But they don't help us come up with the answer." Harry just raised his eyebrows and looked around the table, like he did when he wanted people to come up with the solution themselves.

Harry finally spoke up, "And coming up with a solution is really hard. Even I don't get it right often. But what I do is that I check my solution instead of just trying it, and that lets me discard my failures faster, and then I try again. If nobody sees you fail a few times," he chuckled," you'll get a reputation as being able to do anything by just snapping your fingers. I'm not always right, merely less wrong. And to most people that seems like magic."

"I know that I said I'd try to discuss how you come up with solutions," Harry said just as Draco was walking in, still covered in dust. "For something practical in battle. It's actually surprisingly difficult for me to describe this. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but usually I just kind of… see the solution. Then I double check it. That's important, because sometimes you see the wrong solution. But it's hard to explain how I do it." (tacit knowledge, expertise, Cognitive Flexibility Theory)

"How can you do something but not know how?" Blaise asked.

"Gregory," said Harry, "You've seen Neville fly. You're the best flyer here. What's Neville doing wrong?"

"His balance looks off," Gregory said after a pause. "I can't really explain."

"Gregory can't explain because true mastery means doing things automatically, without thinking.

Like Draco said earlier this year, in a battle you don't feel like you are thinking. When I solve a problem, I solve it. Sometimes I have to think about how I'm thinking about it, but sometimes I don't

the general technique is simple: Understand the problem. You have to know what you've got to work with and what you are trying to do. You'd be surprised how often just looking at what you can work with gives you a clue to the answer.

Draco interrupted. "But in the real world you can do practically anything. Not like a math puzzle."

"That's true," said Harry. "But especially in the real world clearly defining your goals may clarify the situation. Still, it's a good general technique. Anyway, after you understand the problem you look how to link what you know and what you are trying to do. Then you carry out your plan, you do the solution, examine your strategy. And you see if the answer works."

You could try to think of a similar problem, or a related problem

In the real world history is often a good guide. Muggle Science Fiction books often address problems similar to things I've seen here

You could solve a really simple version of the problem, then a slightly harder version, and look for a pattern

Or you could try to break the problem into a bunch of smaller problems. Or try to solve a much harder version…

"A harder problem forces you to be creative

the problem I had was that newspapers were writing trash about me. My first thought was: I need to get them to stop. But that's not the right question

let's restate it clearly. The Prophet wrote rumours about me and I was worried that people believed them. You see what that does?"

"You don't have to get them to stop, you are just trying to keep people from believing them

Focusing on constraints lets you zoom in on the right option."

"And what if you still don't see it?" asked Blaise.

"Then you try something else. If you have time, maybe you try every solution. Look, rationality keeps you from making mistakes and it points the way. In science, we build experiments, but usually a scientist has a decade of experience to guide them. People spent years trying to figure out the structure of a chemical called Benzene. A chemist named Kekulé had a dream about it, his subconscious gave him the answer

Sometimes you just get lucky, although having a good bag of techniques helps you make your own luck. A real problem usually blends many skills. With experience, you'll recognize patterns and solutions

"I know that I warn against seeing patterns where none exist. That's a real problem for people. But our minds are amazingly good at spotting patterns, so if you think you've found a pattern its usually a good idea to test it, even if it just popped into your head."