Why we love puzzles
Emotion in the age of AI + avoiding cognitive bias while booking summer travel (Issue #345)
Puzzles aren’t just a way to pass time for ; they’re her livelihood. As a senior game designer at The New York Times, she creates the weekly Brain Tickler: a visual riddle or word game that invites lateral thinking.
Inspiration might come from something small or random. One puzzle began when Erwin started noticing bike racks around Queens. Each had a distinct geometric shape, which she transformed into a visual riddle: What item might be seen with all five? The answer — “a bicycle” — only lands if the clues are clear and the connections click. A good puzzle, she suggests, starts with curiosity but succeeds through clarity. When it clicks, it feels both earned and a little magical.
While Erwin describes creating puzzles, visual artist writes about solving them. She and her husband started doing jigsaws after reading about their potential to stave off cognitive decline. What began as a practical brain-health strategy quickly became a shared ritual, a new rhythm to their days. The TV stayed off. The room got quieter. Their attention changed. They began to remember not just the puzzles they finished, but how they worked through them — who did what, where they got stuck, which pieces landed with a little thrill.
Whether analog or digital, puzzles require patience and focus. They ask you to notice more, make new connections, and tolerate uncertainty longer than most tasks allow. The pleasure comes from staying with a problem until something clicks.
I love crossword puzzles even though I’m bad at them. I rarely finish without help. But I keep going because there’s something satisfying about watching a blank grid take shape. What stays with me isn’t the solution; it’s the feeling of being absorbed, even for a moment, in the act of figuring something out.
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🤿 Jumping-off quotes
- “The reduction of emotion to something inconvenient, unproductive, or excessive is not just a cultural shift; it’s a design principle. We’re living in a world being increasingly built by, for, and through machines that don’t feel. And in the process, we’re unlearning how to.” — in Reclaiming Emotion in the Age of AI
- “There’s a difference between letting feedback shape you and letting it name you. One is formation. The other is fusion. And when we fuse our identity with what others say — good or bad — we become unsteady, living at the mercy of whatever opinions blow through the room.” — in The Five Laws of Receiving Feedback (Without Falling to Pieces)
- “The weight of historical trauma creates a maddening cycle. It generates mental health challenges while simultaneously fostering distrust in the very institutions designed to help.” — in Shared LGBTQ+ History as Personal Trauma Requires Innovative Therapy
✈️ Your daily dose of practical wisdom on booking travel without cognitive bias
Beware of the “Default Bias” cognitive flaw when booking flights. This shows up when travel insurance, donations, or SMS alerts are preselected for you — which can make you feel subconsciously “left out” if you decline them, but they’re often just a way to overcharge you.
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