Heuristics List

1. Get your hands dirty: Engage the problem. Try things out. Experiment. For example, list out initial terms in a series.
   Slides 23–34
2. Externalize: Use paper or other things in the world to make up for your limited working memory. Make tables, graphs, diagrams to organize information.
   Slides 87–100
3. Visualize: Use appropriate mental representations (images, diagrams, story-lines, etc.) for information to help organize.
   Slides 105–110
4. Look for special (odd, unique, unusual) features in the problem.
   Slides 124–130
5. Go to extremes: Often the "ends" of the problem are important special features.
   Slides 131–134
6. Simplify: Try the problem on small cases to gain understanding.
   Slides 135–142
7. Don't be blind (Einstellung): If you are stuck, consider using another approach.
   Slides 146–154
8. Sleep on it: Time and the subconcious mind can help you to see a solution.
   Slides 155–156
9. Wishful thinking: Start with a "preferred" version of the problem, and see if you can then modify that back to the original.
   Slides 157–158
10. Penultimate step: Work backwards from the solution to find an intermediate step that must be solved. Then your original problem becomes getting to the intermediate step, and from there to the goal. Those subproblems might be easier to solve.
    Slides 159–162
11. Look for symmetries and invariants: These might be special features of importance, or they might give additional insight into the problem.
    Slides 164–173

Note: these slide numbers may be slightly off, as slides may have been inserted or deleted recently.