To me it’s shorthand for “It took years of practice to get good and I can’t explain the process I use. The problem appears too complex for a scientific approach to be worth the effort. I certainly can’t think of any polynomial-time algorithm and my experience has led me to doubt that one exists.”
It’s a caution for beginners. The expert is basically saying that getting good at it will take a lot of work and finding a good systematic approach is likely to be a dead end.
They may not know how to deduce what the perfect painting would look like, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.
One can certainly brute-force the issue by creating every possible painting and comparing them. Whether this can be done efficiently is another matter altogether.
To me it’s shorthand for “It took years of practice to get good and I can’t explain the process I use. The problem appears too complex for a scientific approach to be worth the effort. I certainly can’t think of any polynomial-time algorithm and my experience has led me to doubt that one exists.”
It’s a caution for beginners. The expert is basically saying that getting good at it will take a lot of work and finding a good systematic approach is likely to be a dead end.
One can certainly brute-force the issue by creating every possible painting and comparing them. Whether this can be done efficiently is another matter altogether.