On the Discovery and Generation of Certain Heuristics

Introduction: Typical Uses of Heuristics Heuristics are methods and criteria for judging the relative merits of alternative courses of planning or action. There is hardly any intellectual activity which does not rely on heuristics of some kind. The decision to begin reading this paper, for example, reflects a tacit use of heuristics which has lured the reader to invest time and effort in anticipation of certain benefits. Ahhough such anticipations may occasionally be disappointed, on the whole they are essential to planning our everyday activities. Complex combinatorial problems require the use of heuristics if a reasonably "good" solution is to be produced We shall demonstrate this point using three simple problems (readers familiar with the properties of A' may skip to section Where do these heuristics come from?):