problem space

English

Noun

problem space (plural problem spaces)

1. A mental representation of a particular problem, including initial, final, and possible intermediate states, and often when visualized as if it were a physical space.
   • 2024, Scott H. Young, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery, HarperCollins, →ISBN, pages 33-34:

     Entrepreneurs, scientists, and inventors all make calculated bets on what levels of technological advances they predict in the near future, even if they cannot know exactly how far they will need to venture into uncharted regions of the problem space. The best way to discover promising problems is to work with people who are actively pushing at the frontier. The advantage of working at firms, research labs, or in groups of people who are making new contributions is that you can get strong hints as to which aspects of the problem space are ripe for exploration and which are unlikely to immediately yield fruit. […] Takeaway #3: Explore the Problem Space, One Room at a Time. To explain how he approaches mathematics, [Andrew] Wiles draws an instructive analogy: "I could best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of entering a dark mansion. One goes into the first room, and it's dark, completely dark. One stumbles around bumping into the furniture, and gradually, you learn where each piece of furniture is, and finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch. You turn it on, and suddenly, it's all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were." As we'll discuss in more detail in the next chapter, when we have no one we can learn from and must find our way in an unfamiliar problem space, it helps to first explore the space rather than solve problems. Approaching an unfamiliar branch of mathematics, Wiles not only equipped himself with mathematical tools discovered by others, but spent considerable time applying them until they became a familiar part of his repertoire. Exploring the problem space can proceed by trying things out and observing what happens, without deliberately trying to reach particular goals.

Related terms

• problem-solver, problemsolver
• problem solving, problem-solving

See also

• mental model