Puzzles are an educational opportunity, not a chance to get angry. The economist in me likes to say, no solutions, only trade offs. I have read studies that you are worse at solving puzzles and problems when you are angry. A lot of the best thinking is when we are able to make leaps between wildly different topicsand put them together. And that's hard, i think, when you're angry. But i definitely have gotten very angry many times during these two and a half years of puzzles.
How much of life can be solved by algorithms, and how much just can't be solved? Listen as A.J. Jacobs, author of The Puzzler, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the lessons he learned from solving every kind of puzzle imaginable, including the biggest stumper of all: what it really means to be a human being.