The unfortunate novice theme of direct transformation

In many occasions, the text describing an algorithmic task may entail a rather intuitive, operational solution scheme. Yet, such a scheme may not necessarily be efficient or correct. Nevertheless, novices demonstrate tendencies to hastily design their solutions that way, and avoid seeking insightful patterns, which may yield better solutions. In this paper, we name and shed light on this theme, and illustrate the essential importance of elaborating insightful patterns, which one may assimilate as general problem solving notions.