3 ms·
As learned in CLRS ... when you're stuck, randomize. That turned out to be a great solution in way more problems than I had anticipated.
by fitandfunction 14y ago
As learned in CLRS ... when you're stuck, randomize. That turned out to be a great solution in way more problems than I had anticipated.
- lloeki 14y agoMaking a choice (any choice) is often better than making no choice at all, although not choosing at all is itself an often overlooked valid choice ("A strange game. The only winning move is not to play"). There's an oxymoronic french expression reflecting that often overlooked possibility, especially in dire situations: "Il est urgent d'attendre" which could be translated as "it is most pressing to wait".
- Robin_Message 14y agoThere's also the phrase by Dr. Linda A. Lewis: "Don't just do something, stand there!" to exhort careful consideration even in face of a crisis.
- cbsmith 14y agoIt's not even that really: if you are stuck, that means as near as you can tell, all candidate moves are equally good. Picking any one of them (at random, or through any other heuristic) can only be a bad move if there is something you missed about their relative value.
- riffraff 14y agocontrast: Buridan's Ass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_ass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_ass