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by vonmoltke 2789 days ago
> Doesn't a Fermi problem without domain expertise display more critical thinking and reasoning style, while a Fermi problem with domain expertise is less of a Fermi problem, and more of a knowledge test?

A Fermi problem is both a test of knowledge and a test of reasoning skills. The types of estimates Enrico Fermi was known for were only possible because he had the domain knowledge for his reasoning to leverage. If you remove the domain knowledge from the problem you remove a significant amount of the signal from trying to concoct the estimate. It is a much easier problem if you can just make up numbers rather than infer accurate guesses from the domain.