Thanks a lot for setting these up! I’m really looking forward to the new upcoming practice challenges.
It took me 72 minutes. The 101 isn’t for swag, I just miscounted somewhere and decided to leave it, since the last one is a lot more practical than many.
use a lighter
use a match
attach it to a piece of wire, the wire to a kite. Fly the kite into a thunderstorm
make a deal with the Devil
pretend to make a deal with him, and light the candle if he appears in a burst of flames
short-circuit a car battery, light it of the sparks
place a cash bounty on the task
borrow fire from someone who smokes
put some paper in a toaster
hypnotize a smoker into thinking it’s a cigarette
go to California, and wait for a forest to catch fire
same with Australia
wait until the Sun gets the job done
use a magnifying glass
or your glasses
or a condom filled with water
light it off another candle
do the whole survival thing with a bow and a stick
light it of a stove/oven
if that’s not hot enough, warm up some oil for a long time, and pour in some water
replace the knot with an LED
ask a pyrokinetic
become a pyrokinetic
Flamethrower!
shoot something until it gets really hot
go to a war zone and look for a fire
go somewhere were it’s really cold, and there are fires in the street
wait 30 days, then you’ll definitely find a fire source
do a training in pyrotechnics. After the training you should know how it’s done!
go to a restaurant where they have open flames (like a real pizza oven)
go to a local barbecue spot and wait
go to a steel mill
go to a steel factory
go to an active volcano that features lava
go to the Darvaza Gas Crater
go to a local maker’s lab and try it with a laser cutter
go to a local university’s chemistry lab and try a Bunsen burner
or to a school
or to a construction site where they have cutters or where they weld stuff
take one of those dehydrated chemical compounds and hydrate it
buy a ridiculous amount of laser pointers
attach a heavy boulder to your car, and heat it up by dragging over asphalt
let your car’s engine heat up
open up your cars engine while it’s running
if you have an electric car, find a way to short out the battery
else use your phone
saw to some hard wood vigorously
coax your charger into giving off sparks
do some very intense exercise, and use your body heat
do someone a favour, then ask them to do it for you
coerce someone
become a celebrity, then ask one of your fans to do it
catch an electric eel and find a way to redirect its power
sequence the eels genome, do some synthetic biology, modify your genome and shoot sparks at the candle
use AlphaFold to find some enzymes that make things really hot, and synthesize them (or do the thing above)
read, learn, practice, share. Light the light of science within you
buy one of those explosive Samsung devices
infiltrate a terrorist cell and steal their explosives
go to a circus show where they breathe fire
open five tabs in Firefox on an old Microsoft Surface, and put the candle next to it
make the candle look like a cigarette and give it to a smoker
build a transformer out of two coils, and let one of them get really hot
build an AGI with the only goal of setting everything on fire (try that one last)
put it in the box with candles in a church
make an advent wreath around it, then sell it
break into your neighbour’s house, steal all their candles, put your candle in some obvious yet inconspicuous place, and cut their power in the evening
put it into an elementary school’s supplies cupboard and wait for St Martin’s day
sneak it into a space probe that’s headed for a star
find a way to catalyze the combustion so it occurs at room temperature
Light it with the fire of love!
Once that fails, drill into some tough concrete
Put it into a public place, with a sign saying “Don’t light this candle”
climb on top of an electrified train, and use those sparks
enter the world for which the candle is a metaphor, and tweak it so that a burning candle is now a metaphor for it
wait for the Olympics and use their flame
or don’t, and just use their mirror contraption
attach it to your head, do something awful and wait for God to smite you down
wish really hard for the candle to be on fire
if someone works for you, or you head some chain of command, order one of your subordinates to do it
otherwise use social engineering to the same effect
sneak some malicious code into an oil pipeline management system, ignite the candle off the resulting explosion.
start a riot, and hope that someone sets something on fire
make someone really angry and hope they are a pyrokinetic
make someone really, really angry and hope they will try to set you or one of your possessions of fire (for higher chance of success, try an arsonist)
use social engineering to start a war in your area (If you can’t come to the war zone, make the war zone come to you!)
join the military and place yourself in a position where you command a lot of fire power
get fired from somewhere (I’m sorry)
go a concert with the appropriate visual effects (eg. Dragonforce)
use your local crematorium
drill a really deep hole
put the candle onto a space vessel of your choice, hack the computers to redirect it into the sun
hide it under a rocket before a launch
look for a house with a chimney with smoke coming out of it and break in
go to your closest trash incineration facility
pulverize it, mix it with gasoline, and go for a small road trip
break an arsonist out of prison, and follow them around for long enough
pretend you’re a terrorist, and wait for the hellfire missle
pretend you’re birthday is going to be soon, and make sure people know you like candles on your cake
do the spaceship hacking thing again, but this time just make something crash somewhere near you
Woah, I thought long and hard but this is so much better than mine! I thought #53 to #60 were great, among many others.
The next practice thing is probably going to be the LessWrong Review (which will be announced within a few hours), so my plans for the next challenge might only be launched after that.
Thanks a lot for setting these up! I’m really looking forward to the new upcoming practice challenges.
It took me 72 minutes. The 101 isn’t for swag, I just miscounted somewhere and decided to leave it, since the last one is a lot more practical than many.
use a lighter
use a match
attach it to a piece of wire, the wire to a kite. Fly the kite into a thunderstorm
make a deal with the Devil
pretend to make a deal with him, and light the candle if he appears in a burst of flames
short-circuit a car battery, light it of the sparks
place a cash bounty on the task
borrow fire from someone who smokes
put some paper in a toaster
hypnotize a smoker into thinking it’s a cigarette
go to California, and wait for a forest to catch fire
same with Australia
wait until the Sun gets the job done
use a magnifying glass
or your glasses
or a condom filled with water
light it off another candle
do the whole survival thing with a bow and a stick
light it of a stove/oven
if that’s not hot enough, warm up some oil for a long time, and pour in some water
replace the knot with an LED
ask a pyrokinetic
become a pyrokinetic
Flamethrower!
shoot something until it gets really hot
go to a war zone and look for a fire
go somewhere were it’s really cold, and there are fires in the street
wait 30 days, then you’ll definitely find a fire source
do a training in pyrotechnics. After the training you should know how it’s done!
go to a restaurant where they have open flames (like a real pizza oven)
go to a local barbecue spot and wait
go to a steel mill
go to a steel factory
go to an active volcano that features lava
go to the Darvaza Gas Crater
go to a local maker’s lab and try it with a laser cutter
go to a local university’s chemistry lab and try a Bunsen burner
or to a school
or to a construction site where they have cutters or where they weld stuff
take one of those dehydrated chemical compounds and hydrate it
buy a ridiculous amount of laser pointers
attach a heavy boulder to your car, and heat it up by dragging over asphalt
let your car’s engine heat up
open up your cars engine while it’s running
if you have an electric car, find a way to short out the battery
else use your phone
saw to some hard wood vigorously
coax your charger into giving off sparks
do some very intense exercise, and use your body heat
do someone a favour, then ask them to do it for you
coerce someone
become a celebrity, then ask one of your fans to do it
catch an electric eel and find a way to redirect its power
sequence the eels genome, do some synthetic biology, modify your genome and shoot sparks at the candle
use AlphaFold to find some enzymes that make things really hot, and synthesize them (or do the thing above)
read, learn, practice, share. Light the light of science within you
buy one of those explosive Samsung devices
infiltrate a terrorist cell and steal their explosives
go to a circus show where they breathe fire
open five tabs in Firefox on an old Microsoft Surface, and put the candle next to it
make the candle look like a cigarette and give it to a smoker
build a transformer out of two coils, and let one of them get really hot
build an AGI with the only goal of setting everything on fire (try that one last)
put it in the box with candles in a church
make an advent wreath around it, then sell it
break into your neighbour’s house, steal all their candles, put your candle in some obvious yet inconspicuous place, and cut their power in the evening
put it into an elementary school’s supplies cupboard and wait for St Martin’s day
sneak it into a space probe that’s headed for a star
find a way to catalyze the combustion so it occurs at room temperature
Light it with the fire of love!
Once that fails, drill into some tough concrete
Put it into a public place, with a sign saying “Don’t light this candle”
climb on top of an electrified train, and use those sparks
enter the world for which the candle is a metaphor, and tweak it so that a burning candle is now a metaphor for it
wait for the Olympics and use their flame
or don’t, and just use their mirror contraption
attach it to your head, do something awful and wait for God to smite you down
wish really hard for the candle to be on fire
if someone works for you, or you head some chain of command, order one of your subordinates to do it
otherwise use social engineering to the same effect
sneak some malicious code into an oil pipeline management system, ignite the candle off the resulting explosion.
start a riot, and hope that someone sets something on fire
make someone really angry and hope they are a pyrokinetic
make someone really, really angry and hope they will try to set you or one of your possessions of fire (for higher chance of success, try an arsonist)
use social engineering to start a war in your area (If you can’t come to the war zone, make the war zone come to you!)
join the military and place yourself in a position where you command a lot of fire power
get fired from somewhere (I’m sorry)
go a concert with the appropriate visual effects (eg. Dragonforce)
use your local crematorium
drill a really deep hole
put the candle onto a space vessel of your choice, hack the computers to redirect it into the sun
hide it under a rocket before a launch
look for a house with a chimney with smoke coming out of it and break in
go to your closest trash incineration facility
pulverize it, mix it with gasoline, and go for a small road trip
break an arsonist out of prison, and follow them around for long enough
pretend you’re a terrorist, and wait for the hellfire missle
pretend you’re birthday is going to be soon, and make sure people know you like candles on your cake
do the spaceship hacking thing again, but this time just make something crash somewhere near you
use a flair gun
uhm… bang some rocks together
Woah, I thought long and hard but this is so much better than mine! I thought #53 to #60 were great, among many others.
The next practice thing is probably going to be the LessWrong Review (which will be announced within a few hours), so my plans for the next challenge might only be launched after that.