Brute force

In cryptography, there’s something called a “brute force” attack. It’s a trial-and-error method of hacking. In it, an attacker (using tools and software) attempts to guess usernames, passwords, encryption-keys, or hidden-URLs. Every possible combination is tried.

The thing is, brute force attacks are effective — particularly with weak passwords. (Advice: be sure to implement multi-factor authentication wherever possible.)

On good days, when we’re facing a problem — we can sit quietly with a cup of coffee, sunshine, blue skies … and the solution is gifted to us. A bit of quiet reflection is sufficient for coaxing the answers to our questions.

But sometimes, problems are stubborn and solutions are elusive.

In these cases, we might consider our own version of a brute force attack.

How can we bring a “try everything” attitude to a problem? How can we trial-and-error our way to a solution? How can we — for a period of time — sustainably churn through all the possibilities until we land upon the answer we seek?

We can’t live in brute force attack mode, but perhaps we can keep it in mind as a method for special cases.