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Comment by lottin | Hacker News Reader

It's a guessing game. Referring to a guessing game as a complex mathematical problem is misleading.

False. The problem is so complex we have to resort to guessing / brute force to solve it; if it's so easy, give me a closed-form solution so I can become rich.

While that is true, I think the point that other users are trying to make is that wording it as "a complex mathematical problem being solved" makes it look like that work is doing something useful when it really is not.

It's worse than that, they're aren't solving anything at all. They're taking part in a lottery, in which participants have to guess a number, and the winner gets to update the ledger. Nobody is solving complex mathematical problems.

Given y, solve for x in the equation f(x) = y

That's a valid use of the word "solve". It is obviously mathematical. It is complex, as we do not have a simple way to solve it.

I get it, words can have multiple meanings. It's fine to give a clarification on the specific use here, but then move on.

They’re brute-forcing the solution to a mathematical puzzle.

The fact that there isn't a closed-form solution doesn't make it a complex mathematical problem.

Guessing a number isn't a complex mathematical number, it's just guessing a number.

afaik the solution that has to be "guessed" is not random. We just don't know how to get to it without brute force.

Brute-force solutions are still solutions :)

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