Ask HN: How do you approach a problem you are not sure has a solution?
One thing that my grad advisor used to emphasize is “failing fast”. That is, for every problem of the form “Is it possible to do X?”, there is a dual problem of “Can you prove it’s not possible to do X?”Before spending far too much time on the first question, it’s worth it to spend a little bit of time on the second: what’s the quickest way to show that this can’t possibly work? Often this takes the form of looking for statements such as “If X worked, then Y would work too”, and then you go test Y. Just because Y holds, doesn’t mean X does… but if it doesn’t, you know X doesn’t.It can feel like a bit of a diversion in the moment (“why am I wasting my time with Y, when I really care about X?”)  but it has saved me months, possibly years of going down rabbit holes in my career. Likewise, it definitely helps with that anxiety you mention, because it means I at least have some motivation that my idea isn’t completely crazy.