We used a quote from Robert Harris’s novel Enigma in the BOSS Cryptanalyst Handbook that read
It was hard going, but Jericho didn”t mind. He was taking action, that was the point. It was the same as code-breaking. However hopeless the situation, the rule was always to do something. No cryptogram, Alan Turing used to say, was ever solved by simply staring at it.
It is a fabulous quote and really the very best advice when you are faced with a new Challenge. Indeed it is such good advice that it has been given before in an entirely different context. Our attention was directed to a very similar philosophy expounded by the US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt in his speech at Oglethorpe University:
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
He was trying to reboot the US economy, not break an enemy cipher, but the same principle applies then and applies now. It is not quite the same as the famous business philosophy “Move fast and break things”; it isn’t always necessary to break things to improve the situation, but it is necessary to experiment and experiments don’t always succeed.
Which is a very long-winded way to say: As the Challenges get harder it will take more than staring at them to break them. Don’t be afraid, try things: shuffle the letters, count things, hunt for patterns, look for cribs, change letters to numbers. And don’t be afraid to backtrack!
But above all, try something.
