I was thinking about the NP problem of Satisfiability today. I remember my first instinct with the problem being that it would seem impossible for this problem to be in P. How on earth could you know whether any truth assignments would satisfy the boolean expression without trying them all? But I remember having similar thoughts about problems such as the subset sum problem; and although it's still a mystery as to whether it's in P, techniques such as dynamic programming bring it pretty close.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've typically been a P != NP guy, but for a brief moment today I crossed the divide. I really started to believe that maybe all we're missing is some simple trick that'll change everything. Now that yesterday has become its tomorrow, I'm beginning to come out of my stupor. However, the doubt appears to have been sowed and the romantic in me is kind of glad.
