Anyone with an education in theoretical computer science is familiar with the Towers of Hanoi problem. Given three towers and a pyramid of disks (each one is smaller than the one it sits on), how can you move the disks from one tower to another, following two rules: disks must be moved one at a time, and no disk may ever sit on a disk it is larger than.

Think about the problem for a little while with 4 disks. Try 3 disks. Try 2 disks. Not so tough. Try 32 disks. Or just come up with an algorithm…that’s what CS students do, or else they get weeded out. So think about the kind of obsessive, masochistic mind it takes to come up with 104 solutions to Towers of Hanoi.