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heuristic - Word of the Day - Wed Mar 5, 2025

Myr

Entry posted by Myr in Word of the Day

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heuristic - (adj) - enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves

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HAL 9000 was  the Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer in 2001: A Space Odyessey, and it was totally coincidental that H.A.L is one letter down from I.B.M.

 

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drpaladin

drpaladin 104,693
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"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

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Bill W

Bill W 60,651
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The term heuristic originates from the Greek verb heurísko, which means to discover or find out heuriskein (find).   To Latin heuristicus to English heuristic in late 18th century. 

Heuristic describes a rule or a method that comes from experience and helps you think through things, like the process of elimination, or the process of trial and error. You can think of a heuristic as a shortcut. 
 

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that people use to make decisions and solve problems. Examples of heuristics include: 

Availability heuristic: Overestimating the likelihood of an event because it's memorable. For example, overestimating the chance of being robbed after reading a news report about robberies in your city. 

Anchoring and adjustment: Starting with a target number and adjusting it until you reach an acceptable value. 

Intuition heuristic: Relying on gut feelings or intuition instead of a more thorough analysis. 

Recognition heuristic: Using a brand or product that you recognize over a lesser-known brand. 
 
Representativeness heuristic: Making a biased judgment based on stereotypes. For example, thinking someone is a lawyer because they're wearing a suit and tie. 

Affect heuristic: Using emotions and feelings to make a judgment when you don't have time to think more deeply. 

Satisficing: Making "good enough" decisions instead of perfect ones. 
Edited by Bill W
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