uninteresting

jargon 1. Said of a problem that, although nontrivial, can

be solved simply by throwing sufficient resources at it.

2. Also said of problems for which a solution would neither

advance the state of the art nor be fun to design and code.

Hackers regard uninteresting problems as intolerable wastes of

time, to be solved (if at all) by lesser mortals. *Real*

hackers (see toolsmith) generalise uninteresting problems

enough to make them interesting and solve them - thus

solving the original problem as a special case (and, it must

be admitted, occasionally turning a molehill into a mountain,

or a mountain into a tectonic plate).

See WOMBAT, SMOP. Compare toy problem. Oppose

interesting.

[Jargon File]

(1995-03-10)