I enjoy being challenged. Now, I say this loosely--I do not necessarily like being challenged by a difficult fitness workout, or math homework. But I do enjoy all sorts of games and puzzles that aren’t easy to solve or complete. A category of these type of “games” are what we call Lateral Thinking Puzzles. Basically, you’re given a couple clues to a situation, and you need to answer a question or fill in the details to the situation. If you’re “mediating” the prompt, you know the answer, and you have a group of people try to solve it by asking questions. The questions can cover anything, and be as vague or detailed as possible, but they must seek and answer of “yes/no/irrelevant.”
I remember first being introduced to such a pastime at camp--a girl had brought up a particular puzzle that she had solved with a friend earlier, and asked if we (a group of about ten girls) wanted to help solve them. The prompt was this: The music stopped, and then she died. (If you’re interested in trying to solve this one yourself, I guess you should stop reading here?)
Questions were shouted, one after the other, some overlapping and some needing to be repeated. “Was the music stopping the cause her death?”
“Yeah, duh.”
“Was it pop music?”
“Probably not, but that doesn’t really matter.”
“Was her death intentional?”
“No!”
“Did she have a boyfriend?”
“What?”
“Did the music stopping make her die?”
“Marisa, someone literally just asked that.”
“Oh.”
It went on like this for a while, and eventually, the golden question comes along: “Did she walk on tightropes?”
“Yes!”
How someone got to this point, I don’t really know or remember--we were all pretty freaking lost and confused. But that was all we needed to get to the point of the story.“Did the music stop while she was walking on a tightrope?”
“Yeah!”
“Is she blind?”
“Oh my gosh, okay, I got it--the music is her cue to start and stop walking on the tightrope, because she's part of a circus act, but somehow the music malfunctioned while she was in the middle of the routine! And then, well...”
I think everyone pieced it together at that point. For the next two hours, we proceeded to do as many lateral thinking problems as possible before lights-off, and that was definitely a blast. If you’re one of my good friends, I’ve probably subjected you to a couple rounds of this type of guessing puzzle. It’s really easy to play (depending on how hard or complicated the prompt and/or ending/solution is), everyone can be involved (it's more fun in larger groups), it doesn't require any accessories (besides a sharp brain), and it’s immensely satisfying being able to solve one.
By the way, the music stopped and then she died actually has an alternate, more practical answer. Care to try?
I remember first being introduced to such a pastime at camp--a girl had brought up a particular puzzle that she had solved with a friend earlier, and asked if we (a group of about ten girls) wanted to help solve them. The prompt was this: The music stopped, and then she died. (If you’re interested in trying to solve this one yourself, I guess you should stop reading here?)
Questions were shouted, one after the other, some overlapping and some needing to be repeated. “Was the music stopping the cause her death?”
“Yeah, duh.”
“Was it pop music?”
“Probably not, but that doesn’t really matter.”
“Was her death intentional?”
“No!”
“Did she have a boyfriend?”
“What?”
“Did the music stopping make her die?”
“Marisa, someone literally just asked that.”
“Oh.”
It went on like this for a while, and eventually, the golden question comes along: “Did she walk on tightropes?”
“Yes!”
How someone got to this point, I don’t really know or remember--we were all pretty freaking lost and confused. But that was all we needed to get to the point of the story.“Did the music stop while she was walking on a tightrope?”
“Yeah!”
“Is she blind?”
“Oh my gosh, okay, I got it--the music is her cue to start and stop walking on the tightrope, because she's part of a circus act, but somehow the music malfunctioned while she was in the middle of the routine! And then, well...”
I think everyone pieced it together at that point. For the next two hours, we proceeded to do as many lateral thinking problems as possible before lights-off, and that was definitely a blast. If you’re one of my good friends, I’ve probably subjected you to a couple rounds of this type of guessing puzzle. It’s really easy to play (depending on how hard or complicated the prompt and/or ending/solution is), everyone can be involved (it's more fun in larger groups), it doesn't require any accessories (besides a sharp brain), and it’s immensely satisfying being able to solve one.
By the way, the music stopped and then she died actually has an alternate, more practical answer. Care to try?
I like lateral thinking problems, but I'm terrible at them. I'm just not that good at thinking creatively, but I'll give the question a shot, since I vaguely remember doing this problem with friends before. I think it's that the person is a ballerina in a music box and when the box closes, the music stops and the ballerina "dies".
ReplyDeleteI agree that lateral thinking problems are amazingly fun. I used to play them a lot when I was younger, but I haven't solved one in a while. A popular one that I remember clearly was: "Two bodies were found on the floor surrounded by glass shards and water. Who were they, and how did they die?" The solution to this one is kind of intriguing, so I'll leave it off for anyone who would like to try :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Eric that lateral thinking puzzles are amusing and challenging-- but I stink! No joke I always ask the wrong questions, or when the right kind of question is asked I take it in an entirely different direction. The toughest ones are when you make a lateral thinking twenty questions style game. They may be tough but as an impatient and ignorant player by the end of twenty questions I'm usually exasperated, tired, and anxious to learn the answer. These games push me to my (figurative) tipping point. Perhaps we can play sometime and we can see how many questions I ask before I demand to know the scenario the statement is based on :p
ReplyDeleteI love lateral thinking problems, but only when I'm the one proposing them. If I'm on the receiving end, I often get extremely frustrated and I tend to throw things and scream a lot. I also really love lateral thinking word games. Like the pickle game. If this is a pickle, and this is a pickle, is this a pickle? These games are probably the best way to teach people creativity and how to think out of the box.
ReplyDeleteI first played this game when I was in elementary school in Russia, and our music teacher would tell us we were all detectives and gave us a prompt mystery like "There were three people found dead in a room around a table, two sitting and one on the floor, an empty gun, and a dice." (you could try to solve it if you like) The game was one of our favorite things in that class. And then I was re-introduced to it again last year when we played during lunch. I'm pretty terrible at guessing, but I think we should totally play more often!
ReplyDeleteI remember playing all of these during our free period last year. Usually sitting on top of each other in the library while we all argued over what questions had and hadn't been answered. Good memories. We should do these more often!
ReplyDelete