How to Solve it
Ratings11
Average rating4.2
A perennial bestseller by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It will show anyone in any field how to think straight. In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be “reasoned” out—from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya’s deft—indeed, brilliant—instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of the problem.
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There's a lot of useful value here - even though the writing style and target audience is a bit too narrow:
- has some assumption of a teacher/student context
- assumes a more mathematical context
- generally assumes an academic context is most parts
But it's a good articulation of how to solve problems.
Wherever I first read this in college it freaking blew my mind. I read it a few times. Had a profound impact on my life etc etc. I hadn't really thought about heuristics one might use for divining proofs. I used to try to just think as hard as I could and maybe I'd figure out the answer. But this guy has a whole methodology for it and it makes sense. I printed out the summary and put it on my wall behind my desk so that it would watch over me and the wisdom would flow out.
