October 5, 2012
Curiouser and curiouser
As you’ve probably noticed, the fourth puzzle was unlocked a few hours ago. Have at it!
For what it’s worth, I think it’s easier than the last one. But that’s the hard part about being the guy who actually made the Puzzle: you’re never quite sure…
Some of you have expressed concerned about trying multiple answers. The Puzzle Rules do not prohibit trying more than one answer — but, as I said yesterday, the rest of the puzzles do have clearly defined answers, so you won’t need trial and error.
Remember, you can solve the puzzles in any order — except the first, magazine-based puzzle and the final puzzle. And we’ll be rolling out new puzzles all month. So if you get stuck on one, move on and come back to it later.
Good luck!
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I must be missing something… there seems to be no defined path to attack this puzzle.
Phew! I got it, but now I nave a question.
The word “correct” is blocking some parts of the puzzle that is unlocked by getting the puzzle right, what can I do about that?
Z- Did you already get puzzle 3? Did you find it to be more difficult than #4?
Yeah, I think 4 is easier than 3
I got the first puzzles with relative ease. Even with the hints in Mr. Jennings blog, I am still not reaaly understanding the apprach on #4. Keep on keepin’ on, as they say.
I am seriously confused as to the point of the puzzles past the second one. The first two were based upon exploration and a some knowledge of american history amongst other things, you could break them apart piece by piece and look for clues. Here, it seems to be a random jumble of places or quotes with no real idea of who or what they are seeking, let alone any actual logic.
Alexandre i agree, 3&4 are different and hard and we are missing something on these. Spending lots of time google searching with no luck.
Tricky! Tricky! Tricky!Jennings is a wiz, to be sure. I hate him for it.. LOL Deductive reasoning, thorough work and patience have paid off this time, 8 more to go.
Day 3 of this puzzle and still no clue on the approach. “An overhead view” doesn’t help, either. Ready to give up!
I agree with Alexandre and Dwest above. What we are “missing” here is a clear question in a puzzle so designed as to lead us to the allegedly “precise answer.” There is no guidance as to how many words, or in what order, the correct answer consists of. Even on Jeopardy, contestants got an answer to match with a question. We have neither.
More direction ( not answers) is needed on 3 & 4 to keep most people interested in contining to play along.
Yes (agreeing with dwest and others again). We don’t want hints or clues for each puzzle. We need to better understand what you/ the puzzles want from us, if we are not supposed to be just “guessing.” Exact, acceptable answers require questions.
Puzzles 1 & 2 were quite clear and did NOT require “best guess” or “intuitive” responses, in my opinion. The present problem seems to be some kind of bait and switch – to a different format, that is MORE of a riddle now.
Puzzles 3&4 go beyond red herrings and into the dreaded Thermos and Lunchboxes Vortex (TLV)! I am not interested in increasing my knowledge of same, thank you very much.
We ARE supposed to be looking for American History items in the Museum — like it says in the video? The “137 million” items “archived in the vaults”?
Can you (Ken or anyone else) throw us a bone here?
Ditto to what the above players have mentioned. I’m all for a good puzzle or riddle, but with no direction, only vague “puzzles”, this becomes quite frustrating. To those of you who have solved all puzzles, thus far…you must have a vastly different thought process than I do–good job. Some more direction is needed, I think, to keep most players engaged…
In the spirit of the football season, I’m also jumping on the commentary pile-up. A little red herring in puzzles is fine. An endless banquet–eh, not so much. I think there are 2 big groups of puzzle solvers out there: The Will Shortz/Emily Cox/Henry Rathvon puzzlers, who look for meaning variations (from figurative to literal) in clues to find the answers and then the straight-up cryptography geeks. I’m in the former camp, which is why I may have hit a brick wall in this contest, I think.
Now the cryptography geeks may say, “Fine, you’re out, Ms. Look-for-the-meaning-in-everything.” But if the puzzles are just too frustrating, too many otherwise-good puzzlers are going to drop out, out of sheer frustration. (Puzzling should require brain work, but it should also be fun!) And then the winner will be the lone crypto-geek who lives in his mother’s basement. (Sorry, lone crypto-geek who lives in his mother’s basement…And congratulations!)
I concur with Brett here. I am also all for a good puzzle but geez, I have spent hours staring at Puzzle 3 and still haven’t gotten it. It kind of reminds me of the Starbucks “crossword” contest from a few years ago – some of the most obtuse rabbit holes I have ever ventured down. And I was fairly smug about decoding #3 in a very short time and now?? Nothin’.
I agree with all of the above comments…Congrats to Z who is the only one blogging that he actually solved #4. I, however, have a full time job and three children. I thought this would be a fun challenge for me, but I found myself super-frustrated because my puzzle-solving time is limited due to my above-mentioned “life”. Like I tell my kids all the time…”You don’t have to know everything, you just have to know where to look.”
Actually, even being in the latter category of Barb’s post, I agree with whats been said so far.
There is a lot of “in the dark trying to find which of the 100 light switches works” logic at work, that it is kind of getting ridiculous.
Hats off to Z for getting number four. I have knocked back six pots of coffee, increased the number of gray hairs, cursed a bit and cried only to still be without an answer. Hope others are doing better. But, really – half of the fun in winning is the race, is it not?
BTW, I mean “lone crypto-geek who lives in his mother’s basement” in the nicest, possible way.
If I got 3… anyone can. Just think about Ken’s little hint.
Now 4… I’ve run into a brick wall. Wish all I had to do every day is sit around doing puzzles. Unfortunately I have a busy life and I am losing sleep over this thing. lol
I’m really enjoying the puzzles so far, even though I’m very embarrassed at how long #3 took me. If I hadn’t been so sloppy, the answer would have been staring me in the face! These puzzles take me back to when I read GAMES magazine in study hall. I hope I win. I’ve never been to Washington, and I would love to take my nephew to the Smithsonian.
In defense of Ken, and though I can see how many people are struggling with the puzzles, I have found all of these puzzles to be fair and well designed.
Like Z, I’ve gotten all the answers so far. Puzzle #3 took me a while because I was going about things all wrong. Puzzle #4, on the other hand, came to me right away. It just seemed like the obvious way to answer the puzzle. I had it solved by 1:20 p.m. (central time) on Friday. But both puzzles #3 and #4 seemed like good puzzles. It’s just that good puzzles can also be difficult.
As a general strategy, don’t waste your time going down a single path. Rethink your strategy entirely, and play with as many possible paths as you can think of.
I, too, thought I knew immediately how to attack Puzzle #4, but after a considerable amount of work, I couldn’t come to any satisfying end. And I’ve retraced numerous paths since. Puzzle #2, I thought, was a beautifully crafted, Tolklien-esque riddle and, as one commenter stated, educational (!). When I finally cracked puzzle #3, I thought, “Really, Ken Jennings, really?”
Certainly everybody wants this contest to be challenging, but as Trish said, we’ve also got lives to lead. Nevertheless we’ll probably all come back for more, because we’re the kind of people (losers?) who, when stumped by a puzzle, will return to it over and over again.
To that end, I will ask The Puzzle Team this (if they can answer): Should the puzzles be considered separate entities, or will one puzzle ever inform the answer to another puzzle?
Just knocked down #4. As the other posters have noted, more solution paths works better than deeper solution paths. I start out working way too hard! More intuition – less pencil lead.
Wow, how’s this for being an idiot savant (or maybe just an idiot)? I just got Puzzle #4, but I’m not sure I could say exactly how. The only thing I can say is to repeat Jon’s advice: Play with as many possible paths as you can think of.
Wow, #4 is tough! I have also been a Games magazine, newspaper cryptogram/crossword solver for years, but I have not “seen” a way to make #4 into anything with a solution. Having fun trying and picking the brains of my co-workers just to torment them .
I think what folks are struggling with is understanding the style of the puzzle maker. Until you solve a few of his puzzles, you’re never quite sure you’re approaching solving them in the same way the puzzler did.
For example, our local newspaper has multiple crossword puzzles. I can almost never solve the allegedly easier one because, to me, the puzzle maker is thinking on a plane my brain just won’t go to. I have more luck on the NYT crossword most days.
I solved #3 this morning in about 10 minutes after many many hours of over-thinking it. It turned out that I had the correct approach all the time, I was just not taking one last approach and was driving myself half crazy in the process.
Folks – step away from a puzzle when it makes you crazy. There are a ‘lot’ of weeks to go for catching up.
#4 was quite easy for me, it was the second thing I tried and was solved within 10 minutes of downloading.
#3 took me forever. I finally got it by starting all over again from the beginning and looking at it in a different way – It actually is an easier solve than I tried to make it and the fact that I overlooked the correct path has me kicking myself.
Hang in there!
Puzzle #4 proved relatively easy for me — it was just a matter of changing perspective and trying some different things. Puzzle #3, though, has me at a wall. I’ve trying making it too hard, then making it too easy, and still can’t come up with anything to type into that little box — even with the seeming plethora of hints on the blog and comments. (Well, at least not anything that works!) I’ve sworn 100 times that I was close, but no avail. I’m driving my wife, kids and coworkers nuts!
I’m going to speak up in defense of Ken and the puzzle team. I got both #3 and #4 – #4 I got lucky on and stumbled onto the right path pretty early, but #3 took a lot of false starts, frustration, and eventually putting it away for 24 hours so I could take a fresh look. But both are really creative and gave a lot of satisfaction once I figured them out – #3 got an actual fist pump out of me when I got it. I’ll second Jon’s advice – it is more about rethinking your approach and trying new angles as opposed to hammering at one idea and hoping to squeeze an answer out.
Great job Ken. Looking forward to the remaining puzzles.
Just got #5… This one wasn’t too difficult but it was time consuming. Looking forward to the next one on Wednesday… these puzzles are GREAT!
My daughter and I excitedly began this puzzle journey. She regularly devours Games Magazine and LOVES puzzles. Puzzles 3 & 4 have ended it for us. We are frustrated beyond belief and totally discouraged. A good puzzle is great. An obscure and obtuse one is awful. What began as an exciting thing to do together has ended in fiery heap.
Don’t lose heart! There are many more puzzles to come, and each is different from the others. So you may have better luck with the next one. Remember, you don’t have to solve the puzzles in any particular order; you can always put one on pause and come back to it later.
– The Puzzle Team
The green “Correct” boxes and the lines between the solved squares are blocking parts of the final puzzle–will this be fixed before the end? If so, will you have to get all nine for the lines, etc. to disappear?
Don’t worry. It’s not a glitch; the “Correct” boxes will be taken care of when the time is right.
– The Puzzle Team
I’m trying like the dickens to figure out Puzzle #4, but I have to admit I’ve lost my bearings and am completely disoriented. Just hoping I can somehow redeem myself,and figure out how to take the right angle of approach to solve the puzzle…
Just got the fifth puzzle, by far my favorite of the bunch, took time and thought and reasoning, but every piece played a part.
wow just got the 5th one, now back to 3 and4. ugh those so far are the hardest