Oversimplify until you can solve a toy version and then try to see if it has an extension to the full problem or if there is some reason it can’t be extended. S

Oversimplify until you can solve a toy version and then try to see if it has an extension to the full problem or if there is some reason it can’t be extended. Sometimes you’ll learn the core reason it’s unsolvable, other times you’ll solve it. Other other times, you’ll be right back where you started but with just a little more wisdom. The human brain is usually quite adapted to iterating on some existing thing vs summoning a novel solution from the void of unexistance. So, just find Some starting point. Polya even talks about this in his famous book “How To Solve It”: “If you cannot solve the proposed problem”