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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Why Sudoku is the Rubik's Cube of our decade

I took immediately to Sudoku puzzles and then, a few weeks later,  almost as immediately, grew bored and stopped doing them.

The sameness of the task wore on me as well as, I admit, the frustration of being unable to recover from routine errors.

....so that square has to be a six, but that square also has to be a six and they're in the same row, so now what???

Something else, too, though I didn't put my finger on it until the other day when the blogger Austin Mayor called my attention to "Solve Sudoku (Without even thinking!)" a Web site that shows why Sudoku is, in the end, a tediously repetitive challenge that can -- must -- be solved with a series of rote, mechanical tasks that require computer-like logic but don't call upon experience, intuition or knowledge and are never notably fun, clever or foxy.

Most basic Sudoku puzzles require nothing more than painstakingly following a few methodical steps. The harder ones require more steps but, ultimately, following steps, erasing numbers and trying options solves the puzzle. In that way it's just a brute-force job that never really changes-- like solving a Rubik's Cube or a word-find puzzle. Sure there are tricks. Sure you can get better at it. But after a while...

My prediction: Because of this fundamental blandness, the Sudoku fad will burn out in few years. It won't go away, but it will be identified with this era.

Before you tell me I just don't understand how wonderful Sudoku is and why it's bound to last as long  and be as  eternally popular as crossword puzzles, ready the forum attached to the above link and then check out  Sudoku helper  and Sudoku for beginners, at which the solving technique is automated. 



I agree. They get boring, are too much like work, and have little reward. They're just not fun anymore after you do a few dozen of them.

I'll take crossword puzzles anyday, for their cultural and historical content. More fun, they use puns, and they also have that "Ah-Ha!" factor to them. Plus, language is more fun than rote arithmetic.

I do still Sudoku fairly reguarly, but I think you're absolutely right that it's this decade's Rubik's Cube. It just doesn't have the variability or staying power of, say, a crossword puzzle, or any of the other word-based puzzles that get dropped into that "corner of the funnies page" niche.

... and to think some well-established daily newspapers at one time dropped their bridge columns in favor of Sudoku! (I wonder, are the owners of said papers doing well?)

Amen! I'm a big crossword puzzle fan, and have always thought the Sudoku fad would disappear. A well-constructed crossword puzzle is a work of art. Sudoku puzzles are built by robots.

As a poor speller, I have always been thwarted by crossword puzzles. When Sudoku was introduced, I hoped that it would be the answer to my newspaper puzzle needs. But, due to the shortcomings you have enumerated, it was not to be.

So now I have returned to my traditional newspaper puzzle game -- trying to find logic in the columns of Victor Davis Hanson.

If I'm bored and there is a Sudoku puzzle around, I'll do it...but only if I am in dire straits for an activity. Not that I hate sudoku or anything...but, meh...

It is much like a chess game versus a computer...except in this case you are the computer, and all it takes is some "brute-force" logic to muscle your way through it...

hope that makes sense?

It has been about a year for me and I have yet to lose my fascination with it. I think if I solved it in the methodical way indicated in Eric's link, I would have lost interest a long time ago.

For the first few months, my interest was improving my ability and developing methods to solve the most difficult puzzles. After that, it has become a more nuanced pursuit. Instead of following the same set of steps on each puzzle, I was able to widen my view of the puzzle more and more, so rather than following steps A, B, C, D..., I look at each puzzle and decide what would be the most direct and economical way to solve it.

In doing this, one slowly loses the need to mark up a puzzle so much, and is able to solve a square that would have previously taken a few steps and a few minutes of preliminary marks, just by seeing the outcome through in the mind.

I'm sure I'll get bored of this someday though.

I didn't pay it much attention to Sudoku until I got off a very crowded train at the Paulina stop and an aging trixie at the head of the pack, descending the stairs at the rate of one per minute, was working on one of those puzzels. She even had the self-importance to pause long enough to erase a mistake. Meanwhile, half of Roscoe Village was stuck behind her. Now, not only do I hate the trixies, but I hate those puzzels, too!

As a time-waster, I enjoy Sudoku much more than crossword puzzles. I realize that "solving" them may be considered "robotic" but at least I'm not held captive by some obscure French word that nobody other than the person creating the crossword puzzle has heard of before. (grin)

Maybe it's because I'm a math/computer geek type. And while I realize you can use trial-and-error, the fun of Sudoku is to NOT do it that way--don't ever place a number unless you absolutely know it goes there. That's the fun of it, to me. Pens only!

Now that the sudoku fad has run it's course, can the Trib bring back Scrabble?

I agree with Mike G. Use pens only, and avoid process of elimination, except in your head. It makes sudoku a much more rewarding challenge. Also, I've never burnt myself out on it. I go to the trouble to try to pick up one RedEye a day and that's my fix. It's a great diversion on the El, and I feel like it keeps my mind sharp.

It will fade away, maybe even to the corner of the comics section, but it likely won't burn out.

Everything you say is correct. Basically you just apply a formula to eliminate possibilities. I have often felt the way you do while doing them, so if they get too complicated I have no problem giving up on one. But they are still a great way to knock out time on the bus or el.

I was obsessed with them for awhile but then got tired of it after a few months. I guess the next phase is Kakuro which uses math and logic.

Eric, I completely agree with you. The Rubik's Cube analogy was spot-on, and there's no question that the Sudoku craze will flame out in much the same way. Let's just hope it's sooner rather than later!

"trying options solves the puzzle"

This is why people don't get Sudoku. You cannot try options to solve the puzzle, it's all pure logic. I love Sudoku, I use a pen, and I'm slowly breaking myself of putting the numbers in the boxes as clues. As a numbers person, Sudoku was a God send. LONG LIVE SUDOKU!!!

ZORN REPLY -- But of course Sudoku has NOTHING to do with numbers, really. One can -- and people do -- make puzzles with nine distinct objects. It is, agreed, a pure logic puzzle, though there are times when you do "try options" in your head, saying to yourself "OK, if I make that a 7 then this has to be a 4 and this has to be a 6, but it can't be a 6 so the first box can't be a 7....etc." Brute, rote and ultimately totally repetitive logical analysis.
Whatever floats your boat, but it is, fundamentally, the same problem, the same challenge in a different permutation every day. Crossword puzzles, to which I'd compare them, are, in contrast, wildly different, unsolvable by brute computer logic and often witty, surprising, even educational. And I say this as one who's not a particular crossword puzzle fan (I feel like they're a waste of time after I've finished them, usually).

The Bookworm game is go much more interesting....

I agree that the basic sudokus become rote after awhile. I've moved onto the more complex offshoots. See http://www.sudoku.org.uk and look at both the killer sudokus and the jigsaw sudokus. Both will keep you entertained and thinking long after you grow weary of the basic.

Rote or not, they seem a good exercise, not unlike the Stairmaster or jogging, which are good exercises for other parts of you. What is a trixie?

I first encountered these puzzles as Number Place in Dell's puzzle magazines more than 20 years ago. After doing the first few way back then, I lost interest; the type of logic involved (which is basically process-of-elimination logic rather than true reasoning, in my opinion) bored me. I was incredulous when the "new" sudoku craze took off, but didn't expect it to last long. It's exceeded my expections, but am I surprised by the slump? Not at all.

Kakuro's also been around for decades, as Cross Sums in the Dell magazines, but I'd be surprised if it ever reaches the popularity that sudoku had. Any other veterans of Dell out there?

For staying power of choice, give me a good cryptic crossword any day!

i put down my first sudoku five minutes into it when i realized it was just an exercise in guessing and checking - whether you do that on the page with a pencil or in your head, it remains the same style of boring logic taken to solve them.

interestingly, i think people's personalities match whether they enjoy sudoku puzzles or not. if you're a person who thrives on routine and rules, you probably like sudoku puzzles. if you're a person that can't stand routine and rules, you probably hate them.

and for the poster above who asked what a "trixie" is, it's a female, typically aged 22-35, who lives in lincoln park (and its offshoots bucktown, lakeview, and roscoe village), drives a jetta, thrives on starbucks, probably has a chocolate lab, was in a sorority, now works in advertising, listens to eric & kathy, reads the redeye, and chases after ex-fratboys, who are known as "chads." it's basically a pejorative term to describe the cookie-cutter, ubiquitious yuppie social-climbing females that inhabit the near-north side of the city.

My wife and I started to do the puzzles when they first appeared in our local paper. I got bored with them. She did not. Now I have learned that anything I say while she's 'doing sudoku' falls upon deaf ears. I owe a lot of peace in the family to sudoku.

Burn out in a few years? It wont take that long. I look at it like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Remember how hot that show was? I played it maybe 3 times, and its a senseless activity. At least in crossword puzzles you learn something.

Sudoku kills time on my train ride to and from work.

And I ALWAYS use a pen. I don't put anything in the box except for the number that goes there. It takes a bit longer, but it is more satisfying.

Former Dell person here - yes, Sudoku (Number Place) was just one of many puzzles in Math Puzzles and Logic Problems, and not even an outstanding one at that. I'm really puzzled as to why this one became such a craze.

However, this discussion seems to have devolved into a "word puzzle vs. math puzzle" debate, which is strictly a matter of taste. I prefer math/logic problems myself (my favorite being Japanese picture puzzles which can be immensely challenging and artistically satisfying) and if Sudoku leads people on to other mathematical games and diversions, then it's a good thing in my book.

I solved a few Sudoku puzzles and quickly found them to be repetitive and unsatisfying. After a short period of time, it was very clear that I could get no better at solving them short of speeding up mechanical processes I had already developed.

Crossword puzzles will definitely outlive Sudoku, at least for people who appreciate a good, engaging challenge.

For myself, I realized that instead of killing time with Sudoku, I should get back into playing Go (see www.usgo.org) instead. Now there's a game with staying power! It's already over 3,000 years old.

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