How do you solve hard problems if you can't make incremental progress?
dwwoelfel: Use Poyla's methods of problem solving described in his book: How to Solve It  (http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0691023565)He deals specifically with mathematical problems, but the same ideas apply to computer science.For an outline of the method see this Wikipedia article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It