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Reminds me of a quote by famous number theoretic mathematician Hendrik Lenstra: For every problem you can't solve, there's a simpler problem that you also can'
by isaacfrond 2y ago
Reminds me of a quote by famous number theoretic mathematician Hendrik Lenstra:
For every problem you can't solve, there's a simpler problem that you also can't solve.
- techwizrd 2y agoIs this quote real? I'm familiar with George Pólya's, "If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first a simpler related problem" but I cannot find any source for the Lenstra quote.
- gessha 2y agoI also found it connected to Polya [1] https://www.pleacher.com/mp/mquotes/mobquote.html https://www.pleacher.com/mp/mquotes/mobquote.html
- isaacfrond 2y agoI’ve heard him say it myself in a lecture on the AKS primality test. So, ehh, the source is oral tradition I guess.
- v1t 2y agoyeah https://www.reddit.com/r/quotes/comments/16qgwcv/if_you_cant_solve_a_problem_then_there_is_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quotes/comments/16qgwcv/if_you_cant...
- Horffupolde 2y agoThat doesn’t induce nicely. Unless it was an insult.
- bubblyworld 2y agoMonotonic sequences can be bounded!
- samstave 2y agoIt reads like the famous Churchill quote about "if you gave me poison I would drink it"
- deadbabe 2y agoIf you could solve the simpler problems, you’d be able to solve the larger problem. But you can’t, because you can’t even solve a simple problem.
- arnarbi 2y agoIt’s not induction. It’s just the contrapositive of “if you can solve the simpler problem then you can solve the harder problem”