People use the term “The Polish Method” in a pejoritive manner, but it has a history to it. I found this to be very interesting. The information I am presenting comes from The Code Book, a light and interesting read for the mathematically motivated:
During World War II, the Polish were quite aware that the Germans would invade their country. The Germans would broadcast radio instructions each day in code that were orders for the army for that day. The Poles set up a team of experts to decode these radio broadcasts so that they could know what the Germans were planning. The British also had an interest in doing this, but it was the Poles who cracked the (Enigma) code first, and then shared their intelligence with the British. Perhaps it was because the threat to Poland was most imminent, and that provided the extra motivation.
Although the code breakers were working hard each day to crack the code and decipher the messages, the commander of the operation actually had a spy who was giving him the “key” to deciphering each day’s code. With this key, the code breakers could have easily deciphered the messages in a few minutes, but the commander kept the information from them so they had to work from scratch each day. The reason for this was so that they would not come to rely heavily on a source that could easily be compromised. This reasoning was justified, because the spy eventually stopped giving them the keys.
Thus, the “Polish Method” became a phrase for describing when one labors through a problem even though the answer requires no work. To me, though, the history of it is a shevach to the Poles, who were able to crack the “uncrackable” code without using any “cheat sheets”. So to JosephII and others like that, feel proud when you hear the expression, because you know where it came from!