Why Do We Like Puzzles?
If you like wasting your time on pointless activities, join us as we talk to Chris Lear from the Magpie Crossword Magazine and discuss why humans enjoy puzzles.\n\nIn this podcast, we explore the weird and wonderful world of the cryptic crossword community. We also try to solve the puzzle of why we willingly devote time and energy to tasks which are deliberately designed to be difficult and have no obvious benefits. Finally, you can try your hand at answering one of our guest\u2019s fiendish clues. Answers on a postcard to Aleph Insights.\n\nA few things we mentioned in this podcast:\n- Magpie Crossword Magazine: https://www.piemag.com/ \n- Categories of insight: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/3857/Categories%20of%20insight.pdf;jsessionid=EC7EB351382427E244C7566AC18448C3?sequence=1 \n- Need for Cognition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_cognition\n- Need for Cognition and the Big 5: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223989709603517#:~:text=Significant%20positive%20direct%20relationships%20were,and%20engage%20in%20effortful%20thought \n- SPOILER ALERT: Chris Lear gives an example clue in this episode. Want to check the answer after you have listened? Scroll to the bottom of these notes.\n\nFind more Cognitive Engineering episodes here http://podcast.alephinsights.com and for more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com\n\nImage: Karlo Pusic via Stock Snap\n\n.\n.\n.\n.\nAnswer to Chris Lear's example clue:\n\n\u2018Taylor\u2019s hit a brown-to-black clearance?\u2019. The answer to this is \u2018TWENTY-TWO\u2019, and the clue is in a particular cryptic form known as the \u2018double definition\u2019. In this case, the two definitions are \u2018Taylor\u2019s hit\u2019 and \u2018a brown-to-black clearance\u2019. The first definition refers to Taylor Swift\u2019s 2012 hit \u201822\u2019, and the second is the score for a brown-to-black clearance in snooker. What makes this a great clue is the consistency of the \u2018surface reading\u2019 (what it looks like the clue means), which seems to refer to the 1980s snooker legend Dennis Taylor. In addition, the clue has several components that might mislead a cryptic crossword fan - e.g. the word \u2018hit\u2019 which could indicate an anagram, the word \u2018black\u2019 which often means the letter \u2018b\u2019, and the word \u2018Taylor\u2019 which might look like an alternative spelling for \u2018tailor\u2019, which again could indicate an anagram.