How to Solve It

Polya was a great mathematician who knew what counted (after all, he made major contributions to combinatorics, the mathematics of counting). He thought hard about what he was doing when working on problems in mathematics, developing a mental process that lead to creative breakthroughs and solutions. Polya’s problem-solving method is broadly applicable to domains other than mathematics, and this book features many nice puzzles to improve your thinking.

Algorithm design is challenging because it often requires flashes of sudden insight which seem to come out of the blue. But there is a way of thinking about problems that make such… show more.

In this book, George Polya explains some techniques for solving problems. While this might sound too much like a textbook, the book features puzzles and their solution and a systematic guide as to how to find such a solution. He shows that mathematics is an empirical science, full of experimentation and dead ends, but, with a little luck, crowned with a solution.