So, I have a new problem to solve!
I have thought a little about it and am now sitting at my desk, with my extending pencil and some sheets of A4 in landscape orientation, writing some basic equations and ideas down to begin to reveal a solution.
There are two problem areas, each of which can be optimized easily enough alone by some use of algebra, calculus and coding, but bringing them together seems elusive and at this moment beyond me.
At my desk I have access to my computer, so I do a little preliminary initialisation scripting in Matlab or Python, setting up parameters, outlines of classes et cetera, which I think I might need for each arena.
I prod, push and nudge the problem around. I work along a few mathematical paths and find quite quickly that they are dead ends or just make the problem harder – coding these up just confirms this and I retreat hurt but not defeated.
Good! Now what – Coffee it’s the only answer!
I’m, now back at my desk and things are a little clearer. The answer to connecting these things together is out there, I can feel it, but I can’t see it. Some of the original ideas show some promise but are not simple or clear or anything else really.
I carry on with domestic things, having supper with my wife Julie, my daughter Helen and our grandson Leo; fixing the throttle cable on my vintage motorcycle; watching some TV and finally to bed.
I wake up at 5:30 and suddenly know exactly how I’m going to bring these two problems together. The outlines I went through yesterday were not quite right but together they did point to the solution. And now I can see it clearly.
With a cup of coffee, I sit at my desk and sketch out the maths I require and proceed to produce my prototype code for the solution. By lunch time I have some robust nicely structured code and I’m writing it up for a presentation.
This is just the beginning of the providing an entire solution to one of my customers, but it illustrates how your unconscious mind works – what might be described as the left-hand side of the brain working.
I think that my use of the natural structural order of mathematics and its analytical tools combined with my years of experience of coding and its imposed structures and syntaxes, work quietly on a problem when you are not actually thinking about it. It’s what artists or authors call “the inspiration”, but it applies to any creative process and should never be underestimated.