Class this week was very interesting. The theme of the class was the nature of what makes a puzzle a puzzle, and what makes a puzzle either fun or boring. Whether or not a puzzle is fun depends on the challenge the puzzle presents and the amount of skill the solver has with which to solve it. If a puzzle is very challenging, but the solver lacks the skill, the puzzle is likely to be frustrating to the solver. Inversely, if the puzzle is not very challenging and the solver has plenty of skill to solve it, then the puzzle will be boring or monotonous. This weeks puzzles were all quite challenging, and required all of us to divide the workload up based on our skills. I concerned myself mainly with the crossword puzzle, which was quite difficult actually. But when I finally finished it, I felt a great satisfaction. This reinforces the idea that a puzzle is more satisfying if it has a good ratio of challenging to skill level.
#platypus
Puzzles are definitely more fun when you know you can solve them! It's the challenge of getting to the end that motivates you.
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