The Tags Give Away Too Much?

My favorite part of problem solving is the 'Aha!' moment when the problem cracks wide open and you get a really good feeling. When I see a problem for the first time, I start with absolutely nothing: I don't know what techniques would work and how I would approach. But then I keep thinking and try out different approaches and parts of the problem start to unravel. Problem solving is all about the journey.

With this new tag-system, you can organize the problems by technique, which is a good thing. However, I think the tags give away way too much and ruins your experience of the journey. If you know in advance that a certain problem requires the use of, let's say, 'the triangle inequality', you don't get the 'Aha!' moment.

So I propose that the problem tags be hidden by default and you would have the option of viewing them when you're stuck [kind of a like a hint].

What do you think?

If you are also a fan of the 'Aha!' moment, re-share this note with the community.

EDIT: And if anyone's interested, you can solve the problem from the image here.

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2 \times 3

2 \times 3

2^{34}

2^{34}

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Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

I agree with you. We decided that a standardized experience would make the newsfeed launch much more coherent and easier to understand. Had we hidden the tags, we would have received numerous questions similar to "Why don't these problems have tags?", "How come I can see them sometimes but not always?" or "I think problems should have tags too? It is very useful to us."

In the future, we will be working on hiding the tags for problems, in the newsfeed interface. You will be able to search for problems on a specific topic/technique by looking up tags.

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years, 6 months ago

Thank you for responding. I'll be looking forward to that. And I must say I'm enjoying the dynamic feel of the new layout.

Mursalin Habib - 7 years, 6 months ago

Keep the tags hidden...But give people the freedom to view them at their will by clicking on something like "unhide tags". This will satisfy the interest of both the groups here. :-)

Upendra Singh - 7 years, 5 months ago

And Calvin, Please read my feature request for a personal diary for personal note of formulae and concepts that we learn on Brilliant !

I agree with your proposal.... KEEP IT CONCEALED.

Sheikh Asif Imran Shouborno - 7 years, 6 months ago

Then click 'reshare' on your homepage. This makes your followers know about it.

Well, I haven't been noticing the tags, and enjoying the 'Aha!' moment... I just avoided those and concentrated on the problem... Worked for me!!! To be honest, even if I saw those tags, that couldn't help me much since I'm totally a novice and know nothing... :3

Jubayer Nirjhor - 7 years, 6 months ago

The tags actually make a huge difference. What is the difference between an exercise and a problem? The main difference is that in an exercise you know what techniques you have to use. You are exercising techniques. In problems however, you don't know what is going to work. You keep thinking and eventually solve it. You could be an expert in a lot of techniques and still be a bad problem solver. So what I'm saying is keep the tags but hide them. Then let people view it if they choose to

And don't forget to click 're-share' if you agree with this. Clicking 're-share' lets your followers know about it.

And the tags are right in front of you. You can't just not see it!

Exactly.Yesterday,I solved a problem relatively quick which might not have been the case had I not seen the tags.

Rahul Saha - 7 years, 6 months ago

I Agree too

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$