|
|  |
| |
|
| | The Small Business Think Tank Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | SBTT Word Of The Week - Jan.11.09 | Views: 565 | | Jan 11, 2009 8:45 pm | | SBTT Word Of The Week - Jan.11.09 | # | 
Tim Southernwood | | Hi everyone!
Thanks to a little "bird" for reminding me ;-)
Your word of the week:
heuristic
Heuristic (hyu-ˈris-tik) is an adjective for methods that help in problem solving in turn leading to learning and discovery. These methods in most cases employ experimentation and trial and error techniques. A heuristic method is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is reasonably close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense. Heuristics (hyu-ˈris-tiks) as a noun is another name for heuristic methods.
In more precise terms, heuristics stand for strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem-solving in human beings and machines
adj.
1. Of or relating to a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem: "The historian discovers the past by the judicious use of such a heuristic device as the 'ideal type'" (Karl J. Weintraub).
2. Of or constituting an educational method in which learning takes place through discoveries that result from investigations made by the student.
3. Computer Science. Relating to or using a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution of several found by alternative methods is selected at successive stages of a program for use in the next step of the program.
n.
1. A heuristic method or process.
2. heuristics (used with a sing. verb) The study and application of heuristic methods and processes
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: heuristic
A method of problem solving using exploration and trial and error methods. Heuristic program design provides a framework for solving a problem in contrast with a fixed set of rules (algorithmic) that cannot vary.
Business Dictionary: Heuristic
Method of solving problems that involves intelligent trial and error, such as playing chess. By contrast, an algorithmic solution method is a clearly specified procedure that is guaranteed to give the correct answer
Synonyms:
analytic, cut-and-try, empirical, examinational, examinatorial, examining, experimental, explorational, explorative, exploratory, fact-finding, feeling, groping, hit-or-miss, indagative, inspectional, inspectorial, investigational, investigative, investigatory, pilot, probationary, probative, probatory, proving, provisional, tentative, test, testing, trial-and-error, trial, trying, verificatory, zetetic
eptimology
"serving to discover or find out," 1821, irregular formation from Gk. heuretikos "inventive," related to heuriskein "to find" (cognate with O.Ir. fuar "I have found"). Heuristics "study of heuristic methods," first recorded 1959.
Perhaps the most fundamental heuristic is "trial and error", which can be used in everything from matching bolts to bicycles to finding the values of variables in algebra problems.
Here are a few other commonly used heuristics:
* Look to the unknown.
* If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.
* If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward").
* If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.
* Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success).Private Reply to Tim Southernwood | | |
| |
| |
