Another Six
In the interest of fairness, before completely writing the whole thing off, I went ahead and finished another half dozen sudoku puzzles. Actually, I didn't finish them all correctly. The last one has a mistake in it, but I just don't care enough to figure out where things went wrong. I'm dying to understand what makes these things so compelling to so many people, and so far I've got nothing. Oh, except for one remark from P., the only one that makes any sense so far: "It's fun to count." That is so true, but at this point I feel I've gotten to know this same handful of numbers a little too well, and these little grids are making me claustrophobic. I'm beginning to think of them as 9x9 jail cells.
posted by DO at 10:32 PM
2 Comments:
Here's $0.02 from a total stranger.
I think part of the appeal must be the knowledge that the puzzles are always solvable. If you get stuck, you know you're just missing something. On the other hand, if you don't know the vowel that goes in the crossword where the seaport crosses the opera singer, you can stare as long as you like and it's never going to come to you.
Also, for me specifically, I look at the whole idea of Sudoku as a puzzle in itself. What processes do you need to go through to solve any puzzle? How do you do it in your head without needing any little notes re: "possibles"? Is there a way to ferret out errors once it becomes obvious there is one -- without simply starting over? Once I can answer these questions, I suspect I'll be done with Sudoku except as the occasional time-waster.
I think SUDOKU is the ultimate time waster with no redeeming social value.
I only do it if I have nothing to read and no computer to make blog responses no one will ever see.
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