My Experiences With Heuristic versus Theory

I have used Einstein’s “heuristic” approach myself several times. Think of this as intuition. Your intuition can come up with solutions and ideas that you never imagined on the conscious level. This intuition can come from your subconscious. Your subconscious can find solutions to problems, like a computer program working in the background.

This intuition can also come as insight from the spiritual world. In this case, you get an idea that seems to come from nowhere. You get a solution to a problem that just “comes” to you. It is not something you would have normally thought of, and it is certainly not something you actively thought about.

Many of my greatest insights have come from such intuition - in either form.

The trial and error approach is also common for many scientists and creative people. Picasso used the trial and error approach many times. You can see this in his drawings. Einstein also used the trial and error approach, particularly as he worked through mathematics to come to his final equations.

I have used the trial and error approach myself a few times. This starts by having a question to be solved, then I try different approaches which might provide the solution.

Sometimes this works. Some ideas prove correct, or partially correct. And sometimes the ideas show some problems down the road as I work with the idea. However, I have found that often I will start with a trial and error approach, set it aside, and then let the sub-routine in my brain work on it for a time. Then if I find a solution it will be a type of intuition.

Then there comes the Theory. The “theory” is the science behind the solution. It is the scientific explanation for what works.

It was intuition or trial and error that got you to the right answer. But why does this work? Is concept based on your intuition accurate science, or is it  just a useful approach but not really accurate. What is the equation saying on a physical level? How does the new model work with previously known laws of science? These and related questions are answered by the “theory”.

Note that the theory behind the intuition may come soon after, or decades later. The theory may be developed by the same person who found the solution intuitively, or by someone else entirely.

Like Einstein, I can find solutions based on intuition or the “heuristic” approach. Yet also like Einstein, I desire a scientific theory behind the solution.

Specifically, I like to know that what I came up with intuitively actually works. I like to know that my new model is accurate. I like to know that the process I describe is accurate. In order to do this, I need detailed science to back me up.

Therefore, with most of my new models, concepts, process and related insights, I back these items up with science. I try to provide science behind the intuition as much as possible. In other words, I try to come up with a full “theory”, a detailed scientific explanation, for all of my ideas.

Readers and fellow scientists can judge the theories and models based on their own merits. However, to get to that point, much of the initial ideas were based on intuition, some based on trial and error, and then I spent a lot of time trying to support those ideas with accurate science.

Heuristic versus Theory

Einstein often talked about a “heuristic” approach or a “heuristic” solution as contrasted to a “theory”.

He talked about this so frequently that I had to figure out exactly what he meant. Although there are many definitions for these words, this how I believe Einstein interpreted the words.

For Einstein, “heuristic” means intuition, or trial and error. Using the heuristic approach, you find a solution, but you don’t know why it works.

In contrast, a “theory” not only has a solution, but there is detailed scientific understanding of why the solution works.

Einstein often came up with his solutions based on a “heuristic” approach. Yet he frequently said that this was never satisfactory for him. He always wanted a “theory” to back it up.

Thus, Einstein came up with many of his solutions through Intuition. He then came up with his equations through trial and error. Yet, he always wanted a clear scientific theory to back up his intuition. This is what Einstein was saying when he talked about his heuristic approach versus his desire for a theory.