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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: [meta] how to attack a problem
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:48:49 -0700
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maddoxr@acm.org writes:
[...]
> Actually, no.  What I meant was that the problem and the solution are
> opposite sides of the same coin, the white and black of the yin and
> yang symbol, a single whole that we only perceive as separate parts
> until we see the unity.  Then we understand, and both the solution and
> the problem are obvious.

There are problems for which that's true, where once you understand the
problem clearly enough, the solution is reasonably obvious.

There are also problems for which that is definitely *not* true, where
the problem can be understood from a simple and straightforward
description, but the solution is *extremely* complex.

Examples are Fermat's Last Theorem and the Four Color Map Theorem, both
of which have simple statements but took literally centuries of effort
to solve.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"