Sudoku. Everywhere I go I see Sudoku books. The bookstore has a stack of them displayed on a table; there are rows and rows of Sudoku books on the shelves; there’s a magazine section devoted to Sudoku puzzles. For months now I’ve wondered what it is… and what makes it so popular. I’ve flipped briefly through a book or two and scanned the pages filled with little squares and numbers, not having a clue how one would begin to know how to fill in the blanks. Now, these little puzzles are showing up in the newspaper. Today, I stopped and read the instructions at the bottom of the puzzle: Fill in the empty squares so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains each of the numbers from 1 to 9 exactly once. What? That’s all there is to it? I can do that.
This, my first Sudoku, was medium level… but should be no problem. Well, needless to say, it was a bit more challenging than I figured. Filled in a few boxes quickly. Then I really had to think and play and calculate to come up with the solution. Eventually, I started to speedily fill in the numbers… only to find I had two 4’s in one 3x3 square. Now, it wasn’t like a crossword puzzle where you could erase a couple letters… it was math for heaven sakes… and I had no idea what to do except to start over. Instead I found yesterday’s newspaper and started a brand new one. Used the same logic, but thought it would be speedier since I now had a practice run under my belt. Same thing though… filled in some quickly… got stalled… then the numbers seemed to magically work their way through the puzzle… only now I had two 9’s in the same row. Time to gather up the newspapers for recycling!
Ric called on his way home from work, picked me up and we went to the… bookstore! The first thing that caught my eye was the table of Sudoku books. I picked up an “Introduction” to Sudoku, knowing there must be some logic that escaped me… after all I was a reasonably intelligent woman… or was I? I read the first page, and discovered that there was indeed another logic to apply to solve these puzzles! Another way of reasoning that I had not even considered! Which caused me to realize… that’s why I have trouble solving all kinds of problems and waste so much time worrying. I can see only one way to resolve a problem, and no other way even enters my head… I can see no other options! When another option is shown to me, it’s “Ah, why didn’t I think of that?” But I can’t see it on my own. If my way of reasoning works… great… a problem solved. If not… that’s when I worry.
I asked Ric about this… my ever so wise husband. He told me that I was right, that I did have difficulty seeing other options. His suggestion was to see something as resolved, and work my way backwards to the problem… let the resolution process unfold… allow it to happen. Step outside the box and allow a different way of thinking to come to me. It’s hard for me to process all this… yet it makes sense. I’ll have to try it out on something. There’s bound to be a little itty bitty problem come my way soon. I need something on the easy level.
No comments:
Post a Comment