Hackers regard uninteresting problems as intolerable wastes of time, to be solved (if at all) by lesser mortals. _Real_ hackers (see toolsmith generalize uninteresting problems enough to make them interesting and solve them -- thus solving the original problem as a special case (and, it must be admitted, occasionally turning a molehill into a mountain, or a mountain into a tectonic plate). See WOMBAT SMOP ; compare toy problem , oppose interesting