This idea is known as "incremental problem solving". Some external oracle, eg. a parent, teacher or programmer, provides a series of problems, where each builds

This idea is known as "incremental problem solving". Some external oracle, eg. a parent, teacher or programmer, provides a series of problems, where each builds on ideas from the previous. An example algorithm is the Optimal Ordered Problem Solver, which tries to solve each problem by generating simple programs. Successful programs get stored in read-only memory, then the system moves on to the next problem, generating programs which may call out to any previously-successful programs: http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/oops.html http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/oops.html