heuristically
Through educated guessing
Heuristically describes doing something by trial and error, educated guessing, or practical shortcuts rather than by systematic proof or guaranteed methods.
Problem-solving that proceeds heuristically uses rules of thumb and approximations: The algorithm heuristically evaluates which moves look most promising.
The approach accepts imperfection in exchange for speed or practicality.
Instinctive immediate understanding
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
estimation · approximation · guesstimate · rule-of-thumb · satisficing · ballpark · common-sense · eyeballing
Solving by successive approximation
- troubleshootingSystematic fault diagnosis
- iterativeInvolving repeated cycles
- systematicFollowing ordered procedures
- eliminationAct of removing entirely
tinkering · debugging · diagnostic · exploratory · probing · experimentation · adaptive · incremental
Derived from direct involvement
- empiricalBased on observation, not theory
- self-taughtEducated without instructors
- inductiveDeriving general from particular
- exploratorySeeking to discover
hands-on · learning-by-doing · apprenticeship · informal · practical · observational · generalization · extrapolation
Maximizing efficiency or performance
- greedyExcessively wanting more
- pruningCutting vegetation for health
- hill-climbingGoing up elevated terrain
- swarmMass of moving insects
intuition
Instinctive immediate understanding
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- hunchUnproven inner sense
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
inference · estimation · approximation · guesstimate · rule-of-thumb · satisficing · ballpark · common-sense · eyeballing · back-of-envelope
trial-and-error
Solving by successive approximation
- troubleshootingSystematic fault diagnosis
- iterativeInvolving repeated cycles
- systematicFollowing ordered procedures
elimination · tinkering · debugging · diagnostic · exploratory · probing · experimentation · adaptive · incremental · stepwise
experiential
Derived from direct involvement
- empiricalBased on observation, not theory
- self-taughtEducated without instructors
- inductiveDeriving general from particular
exploratory · hands-on · learning-by-doing · apprenticeship · informal · practical · observational · generalization · extrapolation · analogical
optimization
Maximizing efficiency or performance
- greedyExcessively wanting more
- pruningCutting vegetation for health
- hill-climbingGoing up elevated terrain
heuristicallyalgorithmically
By fixed computational steps
exhaustively · deterministically · systematically · procedurally · mechanistically
heuristicallyrigorously
With exacting precision
formally · provably · precisely · exactly · analytically