Does anyone have any successful techniques in searching for lego bricks in a pile?
Properly sorting is the best solution, although it doesn't seem like that is what you want.



Before starting, it helps to have a quick look through the pile and pick out any interesting bricks you might use. If you don't have your mind set on an exact design, it can be just as much fun to build using parts picked out before hand instead of constantly searching. 

Once you start building I recommend building as much of your creation before searching - keep track of a list of pieces that you need. If you can't immediately find an important piece, then use a temporary one that has the same functionality. Once you're done, go through the pile looking for each piece you need. It will be faster to look for several pieces at the same time as opposed to one.



For the actual sorting, I use the most distinguishing feature of the piece. If it's a unique color, then use that. If it's a strange shape look for that. The method I use for searching in a random pile is to focus on a small area - once I have verified that the piece isn't there I'll separate the area from the pile and move onto the next area. This prevents looking over the same area twice.