What makes a puzzle worth solving? I don’t have a good answer that would apply to all people. But I do have an idea for what I feel makes me feel that a puzzle was worth the time I invested in solving it:
- It was neither too hard nor too easy. If it was too easy, I wouldn’t have tried to solve it. If it was too hard, I would have given up. I know this property is entirely dependent upon the individual’s experiences and preferences, so there’s no one puzzle that will make everyone feel that way.
- It used a puzzle technique I had not seen before. Obviously, the more puzzles you solve, the less new stuff there is to see. But puzzle constructors never cease to amaze me – they either create new puzzle ideas altogether or they synthesize a new idea out of many existing ideas.
- If it was a series of smaller puzzles, the puzzles grew incrementally more difficult. This all goes back to the need to feel like I’m making progress. Similarly, mountain climbers don’t climb until they reach the top, they break the climb up into various stages and focus on one stage at a time. Without mini-goals, the challenge seems to daunting. (Crossword puzzles are extreme in this regard – solving each across or down clue is its own mini-goal.)
- I felt like I had really accomplished something. All puzzles require work, and the “aha!” moment of when the puzzle solution becomes clear should come right when I’ve had to work for it for a while.
- I felt the puzzle was fair. Puzzle constructors should not let would-be solvers wander down intentionally-constructed dead ends for too long, or they risk eroding the feeling of accomplishment (see previous item).
I’ve started a new category of links on the right side of this page – Puzzles Worth Solving. I’ve included them on the list either because I did solve them and I thought they met the criteria I described above, or because I haven’t solved them and I believe that they will.
My first entry there is a link to a bookmark list on Geocaching.com of puzzle caches I think are worthy of your attention. These are all solve-at-your-desk puzzles, which means that you can solve them no matter where you live even if you’re not a geocacher.
If you know of any links to other specific puzzles of any sort that you feel are worth solving, please send email to me or let us know in the Puzzlehead forums.
