Are You Out of Your Vulcan Mind?
/The website Sporcle is one of the best time-wasters ever invented. It is home to literally thousands of quizzes, on everything from Pokemon to world homicide rates to Agatha Christie novels to the most common Pope names. Seriously – search just about any topic on Sporcle and you’ll find a quiz about it. I’ve been playing games on Sporcle regularly for about the past five years, but I typically stick to topics that I know I will excel in: Game of Thrones trivia, lyrics to Beatles songs, spelling challenges. Those are all firmly in my wheelhouse. I’ve stayed as far away from logic quizzes as possible – until now.
I wish I could get some guidance from this guy. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia.)
I’m going to attempt a quiz called Nimble Number Logic Puzzle. The title already has me worried, and the ending of the url – “hardest-logic-puzzle-ever” – has me terrified. But this blog is all about facing my fears, so I’ll channel my inner Spock and think logical thoughts.
About five tries in, I am officially frustrated. So far, my fourth try has been the most successful, and I spent most of my fifth try attempting to quickly recreate my previous try, using my memory instead of my skills of deduction. Perhaps on my next attempt, I’ll use logic instead of my memory.
By my eighth try, I am getting very close to solving it, but still making mistakes. I can do this.
At a certain point, I get excited about getting the puzzle done correctly and I start to make typos – which end the game. Of course, this just gets me more frustrated, and I make more mistakes.
Finally, on about my 12th official try, I solve it! I’m flooded with a sense of relief and satisfaction – I don’t even care that it took me so many tries and I made so many mistakes. I finished it, and I did it all by myself, and I didn’t even look at the user comments for help. I did it!
Of course, I read the user comments after finishing the quiz, and most people were saying that it was the “easiest logic puzzle ever,” which makes me feel a little disheartened, but hey. I struggled with it and I conquered it. I'll work my way up to the harder puzzles, but for now, the important thing is that I'm making strides.
For more logic puzzles, as well as puzzles on any topic imaginable, visit Sporcle.
Janet Goertzen
Janet graduated from Bishop’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2010. She hopes to someday make a living from her words while continuing to avoid the terror of numbers. In her spare time, Janet can be found reading, playing trivia games, watching cat videos, or correcting people’s grammar on the internet.
