I love puzzles. One of the most challenging puzzles on which I worked is called "Little Red Riding Hood's Hood". Yes, you guessed it, it is completely red, and to make it even more difficult, it is round. Diabolical. Any puzzle fan worth his salt knows that fundamental puzzle-solving theory is based on starting with the corners, so here we are, faced with a round sea of red, not even a tone-on-tone or a gradient in sight to show us the way.
What a wonderful, enticing challenge: a puzzle truly worth the effort required to solve. Admittedly, attempts to solve this puzzle were fraught with frustration, false starts and stops, and many, many inappropriate suggestions, such as cutting off ends of specific puzzle pieces or force-fitting recalcitrant pieces into empty spots. Fortunately, reasonableness prevailed, and one memorable day, the gleaming perfect red circle appeared in all its gory glory, fully formed, in its place of honor on the coffee table.
This awesome achievement was months in the making, and the visible product held its place of honor for almost as long. No matter that there was no room for anything else on the table. No matter that not everyone appreciated the value of the effort or the result. No matter that attempts to dust or clean anywhere in the vicinity of this beauty were prohibited. It was spectacularly gratifying to catch a glimpse of the finished product every time I walked past it.
At some point other puzzles appeared to be solved, and "Little Red Riding Hood's Hood" was disassembled and boxed up. As painful as it was to close the cover on the once-again scrambled crimson pieces, the powerful lesson of the puzzle solution lingered on... to this day. And what was this lesson, you ask? So glad you did.
Different problems demand different solutions. The tried and true method of always attacking the problem in the same way simply does not work all the time. We have to examine the entire landscape and devise the appropriate approach, and we have to do this each and every time we face a problem.
The easy fix usually does not work. Cutting corners or force-fitting typical approaches to atypical problems are likely ultimately to result in creating more problems, while also not fixing the original one.
The greater the challenge, the more gratifying the solution. For people who like solving problems (sometimes known as the thrill of the chase) easy puzzles are just no fun. Routinized solutions are really not solutions: they become SOP. If you have puzzle lovers as colleagues present them with the toughest problems and watch them smile.
Solving intricate problems takes time. Even the most committed puzzle lover does not work on the same puzzle 8 hours a day, every day. We need to take mental breaks and (dare I say it?) muse about the problem. Sometimes stepping away and working on another task is the best way to come up with an innovative approach to the problem at hand.
Seek out your own diabolically challenging puzzle to solve, think about how to approach it in a manner that you may not have tried before, be persistent, be innovative, and be prepared to smile every time you catch a glimpse of the result when you lay the beautiful, completed product out in front of your colleagues.
