Hey adult man here

Hi I'm a big adult, I'm 24. I saw the college acceptance thread so idk if it's kids here or what.

I suck dick at problem solving. This is stopping me from passing job interviews and ending this hellish life of neetdom and being (in terms of housing and food) dependent on my parents. I freelance and make money, but I can't do this shit anymore.

Thought on getting better at verbally problem solving? I found some books and practice problems which feel like they're helping, but it's only been a few days desu.

Failed my third on site interview. Blown through 30+ phone interviews. Can't do it anymore folks. I need to get better at this shit.

You will absolutely get better with practice. A few days isn't long enough to see results, but keep working at it.

When you're practicing, try to replicate the real situation as much as possible, if you can. Pick a practice problem and talk out loud through your thought process while you're working on it as you would to an interviewer. Even better if you have another real human being there while you're doing it.

That's for training you to solve problems on the fly while talking out loud, but it may also be beneficial to just practice solving problems in general if you're not used to it. Try to be methodical and approach the problem from different angles. There are good books like How To Solve It by Polya that talk about this.

As for failing interviews: be tenacious. Some of the most autistic, retarded people have jobs - thus, those same people were able to pass an interview. You can too.

Good luck. Independence is awesome. I hope you reach it.

practice for sure.
field?

UX/User Research actually. I have a case study I have to solve, it's the elevator problem more or less where you have an elevator that goes up x amount of floors and you want to design it as user friendly as possible. I'll try to pull it up.

thanks bro really appreciate it

Here's one I'm working on right now:

Elmer tower has 30 floors and there are 6 elevators open for general use. Everyone who works in Elmer tower receives an access card that allows them to access the designated floor for their office. The access card has an NFC chip which must be scanned at the terminal on the ground floor which then assigns an elevator for passengers to travel up. For guests visiting the tower they have to collect a visitor card from the reception and return it back before they depart.
This process of scanning a card to access a floor and waiting for the elevator has led to frustration amongst people. How might you find the root cause of their frustration and find solutions that address the problems?

woah this is a vastly different kind of problem than i was expecting. See me, id tell them to suck it up and stop being such entitled pricks, but im sure that's not gonna fly lol.

Yeah it's a bit different from engineering but it comes from the same root. You'd tackle it the same way you'd tackle any other problem: break it down into easier to digest chunks, solve the easiest piece first, and use it to attack the other pieces and see if it gives you any insight. Then once you can find a way to tackle each chunk put it all together and you're golden.

It's just 1) I'm slow af, it took me 27min to do a medium ranked sudoku today, and 2) its tough when its more abstract like this and youre on the spot

install a mirror / tv on the ground floor

a progress bar could be neat, its why they exist

step 1 is to stop reddit spacing.

OP, if you should read "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie. If you apply the theory in that book, you will have a job guaranteed

>I found some books and practice problems
Care to share them? I'm also looking to improve my problem solving skills.

I'm having a good time with Think Like a Programmer by Spraul, the first chapter is very excellent. From there it's been a mix of websites + problems + the sudoku app on my phone and tackling it in the way Spraul suggests.

I'm a former journalist I'm good with people, but thanks with the suggestion. I'm not mathematically trained so it's the division of and analysis of abstract problems that stumps me.

What race are you? It's possible that you're just aiming too high and making yourself miserable as a result.

From reading your posts, taking into account your audience would help in organizing your thought processes towards a general coherence which we all readily understand. When you post, it's like you're talking to yourself. That could also blend into job opportunities: if the managers don't feel acknowledged, they're less likely to hire you (although I'm, for the most part, uncertain if that is the case).

Or maybe it's just your syntax I'm finding errors in. Anyway, if you've for 70 USD geniusintelligence.com would assist greatly in problem solving.

If you've got 70 USD* I'm on my phone currently. Whoops

>Anyway, if you've for 70 USD geniusintelligence.com would assist greatly in problem solving.

This why physics courses should be mandatory for all majors; it makes you very good at problem solving regardless of whether you actually ever use physics again

I'd suggest making a survey to see what's bothering people, wether it's waiting times, difficult procedure or whatever.

Once you know what are the top ten issues (or any number you like) you work on those which account for most of the unsatisfied people.

This is actually a time where
>philosophy, start with the classics
Is appropriate advice.
I have a different problem, unhuman verbal reasoning but no familiarity with formalisms.
My IQ has been officially tested in the 99.5th percentile multiple times since I was placed in gifted and talented around 7 years old. Im in simular circumstances as you. Except I am mentally ill and have profound verbal intellegence. Don't point out my writing, I know and don't care.

Dude, I scored in the top 99.9th percentile and think I'm an idiot. Don't rely too much on those numbers broham, having an open mind, as opposed to harboring the knowitall personality-type, is what truly allows one's innate genius to flourish, to prosper. Meditation can assist, and relinquish you of your mental illness if practiced regularly. Much luck to you brother

indo-pak. id rather freelance for a year than get paid pennies

What. IQ is a meme, it doesn't mean anything. Also like I stated earlier, I'm socially solid I'm just not from a math/problem solving background so I occasionally run into walls.

> From reading your posts, taking into account your audience would help in organizing your thought processes towards a general coherence which we all readily understand. When you post, it's like you're talking to yourself. That could also blend into job opportunities: if the managers don't feel acknowledged, they're less likely to hire you (although I'm, for the most part, uncertain if that is the case).

This is an interesting thought

i would ignore what that user said that you linked, you're asking a question about yourself, of course it's going to be a first person fuckfest. but his advice about taking the audience into account is solid.