> A good start is to try easier problems that will hopefully provide some insight into the hard problem. I.e. if you have some theorem you want to prove about a

> A good start is to try easier problems that will hopefully provide some insight into the hard problem. I.e. if you have some theorem you want to prove about all matrices of a certain form then do it for 2x2 and 3x3 matrices first or something. Other times, it helps to go the other way. If you have a load of numbers to work with and can't see a pattern, replace them with variables; there will probably be more patterns in your derivation if you do that, and you'll be able to simplify more easily.