📘 Part 3: Puzzles

This episode's vocabulary

To contribute (verb) - to be one of the reasons why something happens.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

To churn sth out (phrasal verb) - to produce large amounts of something quickly, usually something of low quality.

Neuroplasticity (noun) - the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.

Jigsaw (noun) - a picture stuck onto wood or cardboard and cut into pieces of different shapes that must be joined together correctly to form the picture again.

Underchallenged (adj.) - somebody doing tasks that are not challenging enough or that they're bored because there is not enough work.

Mischief (noun) - behaviour, especially a child's, that is slightly bad but is not intended to cause serious harm or damage.

Unruly (adj.) - unruly people are difficult to control and often do not obey rules.

Higgledy-piggledy (adj., adverb) - mixed up and in no particular order.

To shift (verb) - to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightly.

Menial tasks (adj.) - menial work is boring, makes you feel tired, and is given a low social value.

To immerse in sth - to become completely involved in something.

Puzzling (adj.) - difficult to explain or understand.

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Questions and Answers

M: So Rory, why do people like digital mind games?

R: Well, I suppose it always comes down to fun, doesn't it? People like to have fun, and digital games can be played anywhere, and they're very accessible. That contributes to their popularity. But I think the other thing is, they can always introduce an element of novelty, which is what people respond to. Because you can always update games and get new things for them that keep people engaged.

M: Why do people like digital puzzles?

R: Well, for the same reasons I mentioned, and it's a challenge. Everybody likes a challenge that's, you know, manageable, at the very least. If it wasn't challenging, it would get very boring and you'd be like, what's the point of doing this?

M: Do you think that in the future, we're going to have more digital puzzles?

R: I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest with you. They're churning out new kinds of, well, puzzles, games, in general, all the time. So why not?

M: Which age groups like puzzles the most?

R: Well, that's a good question. I'm tempted to say as older people since they can meet challenges more readily and you know, they can adjust the level of challenge. I could be wrong, though. Young people have greater neuroplasticity. So perhaps they can also respond in their own way too.

M: Are mind games, like crossword, puzzles popular in your country?

R: Well, I would say so. I mean, there's all kinds of things. Like my aunt always likes doing jigsaws, for example, and my parents do the crossword. My brothers, or at least my little brother plays video games, which are kind of puzzles. They have the similar elements to them, and you have to solve problems in them.

M: Why do parents let their children play puzzles?

R: Well, it beats the alternative, which is children being bored and underchallenged. And we all know what happens when that's the case, invariably leads them into mischief. And, you know, you just, it makes them unruly in their behavior unmanageable. So why not give them this challenge to overcome in a constructive fashion?

M: And do teachers use puzzles in their lessons?

R: I do, I used to just use word searches. And actually, the kids seem to like that a lot. But I also liked using word scrambles, which is when the letters are all higgledy-piggledy, and you have to put them in the right order.

M: What kinds of puzzles improve people's intelligence?

R: Oh, I don't think there are actually puzzles that can do that. Because to be honest, your intelligence is sort of fixed. And there's not really many games that can shift that. This would be difficult to prove cause and effect. Maybe sort of number, puzzles, or number games like Sudoku, for example. Because that, you know, working with numbers helps. It's a key part of measuring your intelligence quotient. But it's difficult to tell if people doing that improves their intelligence or if they'd already improved their intelligence in other way. I don't know how you would prove that.

M: But can you improve your intelligence with some puzzles and crosswords? They say that crosswords improve your intelligence.

R: I think you could probably exercise it to improve the speed of it, but I don't think you can increase it. I think it's fixed at birth genetically. I'm pretty sure you can move your IQ. What I'm saying is you can move your IQ up and down by a couple of points using due to various environmental factors. But it's not like it's not a huge difference that can be made in that sense.

M: Really? So you think that if the person is stupid, the person is stupid. That's it. Period, sorry, boy, we can't help you. You're just stupid by birth.

R: Well, I'm talking about IQ. And yes, but for example, there's a limited... No, no, the American army has, if you have an IQ lower than, I think it's 80, you cannot join the American army, for example, and you can't even do any menial tasks in the American army. And this is actually a serious problem. Because there are people that have this...

M: But you can work on your intelligence, you can improve your intelligence, take the test again, and off you go.

R: No, no, you can't. That's the thing. This has been done. They've tried this and it is possible to move your IQ a couple of points up and down, due to various factors, but it's not possible to make like great leaps of like 10 or 12 IQ points. That's never been done.

M: Why are detective stories attractive to people?

R: Well, everybody loves a mystery, don't they? And it can be fun to put the pieces together as the narrative progresses. At least that's why I like detective stories.

M: Which do you think is better? A detective movie or its original novel?

R: Well, I suppose it depends on what you want to get from the experience, doesn't it? The novel will immerse you in the experience of trying to solve the crime. Well, at least it will do it more than the movie will. And the movie will play up the dramatic elements, which people can also enjoy. But it will be more difficult to translate this experience of solving the murder mystery or whatever it is, into movies. That's hard.

M: Do you think many people nowadays enjoy puzzles? Or people are becoming lazier and they don't want to think anymore doing all these crosswords, jigsaw puzzles?

R: I don't know how you'd measure that. I mean, people will like to do things that challenge them. But maybe they'll like different forms of it. So maybe in the past, we like doing jigsaw puzzles and crosswords, but in the future, we'll prefer to do different things. But the concepts of being challenged and having fun will remain the same. But I don't even know how you would measure that. It's difficult to measure levels of boredom and subjective experiences like that.

M: Thank you very much, Rory, for your puzzling answers.

R: Hopefully, the vocabulary is not puzzling.

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