A lot of a puzzled doing is compulsive. A little bit of suffering redeemed by a little bit of comfort at the end, right? Exactly. One of my favorite descriptions of puzzles was by this japanese puzzle maker, maki kaji. He describes it in three symbols: The question mark, thet forward arrow and the exclamation point.
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.