Reply To: Challenge 10B
@Crackerjack_404 eloquently put and I very much agree with everything you said. I love the codebreaking hoodie, might steal that idea!
I’ve also found that writing my thoughts down is very useful. I do this continuously, writing down what I try and crucially why, and then what I can determine from the outcome (visual inspection, single and multiple letter frequencies & alphabet lengths, IoC, periodic IoC, repeats, letter placement). This includes all observations and patterns: obvious or subtle.
I then use what I think of as the scientific method; for example: make a hypothesis about how the text was encrypted, use that to make a prediction about some statistical properties of the ciphertext (sometimes I try encrypting a corpus with my hypothesized cipher so I can compare various stats), and see how well this explains the properties of the ciphertext I have noticed.
The most important thing is to keep coming up with possibilities, because eventually you will come up with something that clicks with the information you’ve gleamed from the ciphertext. If you can’t think of anything else to try, that’s a sign that you need a break: do some household tasks, make yourself a snack, explain to someone (even, and perhaps especially, if they are not involved in the cipher challenge) what you know about the cipher, and then come back with some fresh ideas to try.