I’ve recently gotten into forecasting and have also been a strategy game addict enthusiast at several points in my life. I’m curious about your thoughts on the links between the two:
How correlated is skill at forecasting and strategy games?
Does playing strategy games make you better at forecasting?
How correlated is skill at forecasting and strategy games?
I’m not very good at strategy games, so hopefully not much!
The less quippy answer is that strategy games are probably good training grounds for deliberate practice and quick optimization loops, so that likely counts for something (see my answer to Nuno about games). There are also more prosaic channels, like general cognitive ability and willingness to spend time in front of a computer.
Does playing strategy games make you better at forecasting?
I’m guessing that knowing how to do deliberate practice and getting good at a specific type of optimization is somewhat generalizable, and it’s good to do that in something you like (though getting good at things you dislike is also plausibly quite useful). I think specific training usually trumps general training, so I very much doubt playing strategy games is the most efficient way to get better at forecasting, unless maybe you’re trying to forecast results of strategy games.
I’ve recently gotten into forecasting and have also been a strategy game addict enthusiast at several points in my life. I’m curious about your thoughts on the links between the two:
How correlated is skill at forecasting and strategy games?
Does playing strategy games make you better at forecasting?
I’m not very good at strategy games, so hopefully not much!
The less quippy answer is that strategy games are probably good training grounds for deliberate practice and quick optimization loops, so that likely counts for something (see my answer to Nuno about games). There are also more prosaic channels, like general cognitive ability and willingness to spend time in front of a computer.
I’m guessing that knowing how to do deliberate practice and getting good at a specific type of optimization is somewhat generalizable, and it’s good to do that in something you like (though getting good at things you dislike is also plausibly quite useful). I think specific training usually trumps general training, so I very much doubt playing strategy games is the most efficient way to get better at forecasting, unless maybe you’re trying to forecast results of strategy games.