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Comment by philipov | Hacker News Reader

Simple (easy to say) is not the same as being easy to deduce. A needle is a simple object, but finding one in a pile of hay takes a lot of work. Likewise, it is hard to pick out the features that make a problem simple when they are embedded in a sea of complexity. It becomes easy to say once you are no longer faced with the difficulty of knowing the right thing to say.

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>Simple to say is not simple to deduce.

Case in point: Fermat's Last Theorem, or Collatz Conjecture

Well, no, the point isn't that simple propositions may have complex proofs, the point is that a proof may itself be simple, though hard to discover in the first place.

> A needle is a simple object, but finding one in a pile of hay takes a lot of work.

1. Gather all the hay in multiple trash bags (this assumes that the needle remains with the hay and doesn't fall out)

2. After gather the hay, use a roller-magnet pickup tool over the area the hay was at to find the needle if it fell out of the hay (assumes needle is made of ferrous magnetic material)

3. Place each bag, one by one, inside the torus of a CT scanner. Turn on CT scanner.

4. Remove bag of hay. Check inside of CT scanner torus for needle.

5. Repeat as needed with other bags.

Alternatively, one could set the hay pile on fire, then run over the ashes with the magnetic pickup tool.

Alternatively I could step on the hay with a bare foot, because if the needle is in there, I'll step on it for sure.

Or you could just burn the hay.

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