One of our magazines had the following puzzle: Remove eight letters from the following to reveal a common garden crop.
Okay, there are 20 letters there. So there would be 12 left after we remove 8. But what common garden crop has 12 letters? I couldn’t for the life of me think of one. I had to wait for the next issue to learn the answer.
To see the eight letters that need to be removed and the garden crop, click here.
Duh! I had to laugh…I “should” have thought of that. It was a great reminder that we can’t always believe everything we think…it’s a good idea to check our assumptions from time to time. And I’m doing just that right now, thinking about what other assumptions I habitually make that may not be true. 😉
Do you ever do mental housekeeping like that?
LOL….
right now my brain can only just cope with day2day stuff…
oops no I don’t it is! – the brain that is, coping!
.-= Cathy in NZ´s last blog ..You never know what’s in a trademans’ toolbox =-.
Jean, I go through four to six crossword puzzles every day. That means getting into the heads of six different setters with their own idea of setting the puzzles. There are occasions when somethings beat me and I have to wait till the next day and the solutions are always so obvious that I feel like kicking myself for not having seen them.
.-= Rummuser´s last blog ..Suzen’s Comments And My Inspiration. =-.
Most (or a lot) of my thinking is assumptions. After all, we females are good at intuition.
Tom sees all the angles. I accuse him of usually disagreeing with me. Turns out he was RIGHT! Oh well. But I like him because he’s smart.
I can’t think of any common assumptions I make. I make up stories behind facts I hear. I like details so if not there, I invent them. I don’t look at all the angles.
I think I only do it when investigating something I’m interested in. At the moment I’m working through Mark Silver’s Heart of Money book, challenging lots of my assumptions about money, marketing, business.
New insight: money is trust. Quite different to my old assumptions about what it is.
Cathy,
Thanks so much for commenting. I would hate to have your schedule. I’m impressed that you can handle it. 🙂
Rummuser,
“…and the solutions are always so obvious that I feel like kicking myself for not having seen them.” I’m more likely to laugh than kick myself. If it’s something I think I should have seen I get curious about why I missed it.
bikehikebabe,
So the big assumption you make is that you are right and Tom is wrong. 😉
Evan,
It would take way to long to challenge all of our assumptions, but I think it’s a good idea to rethink at least some of them. It keeps us from believing everything we think. 😉
I look at these puzzles and either see the answer in a flash or never manage to see it at all. This time I saw the correct answer, but your mention of assumptions sent me off looking for a puzzle that was not there. I saw the word eight and even removed that thinking it might play a part.
Finally I clicked on the link and saw I was correct all along.
.-= Grannymar´s last blog ..Old Rope =-.
bikehikebabe,
So the big assumption you make is that you are right and Tom is wrong. 😉
Yes, I tend to do that. But whatever I say (it seems) Tom has a conflicting idea. I must remember that it’s just an angle that I hadn’t considered. He’s not trying to negate my idea.
Grannymar,
I know what you mean. The puzzle after this one was there are six glasses lined up in a row. The first three are filled with tea, the last three are empty. How can you move one glass and have them alternate between tea, empty, tea, empty, etc.? I saw that one right away. On the other hand the latest one is how can you divide 16 apples equally between 17 children? All I can think of is make apple sauce and divide it into 17 equal portions. I’ll have to wait until the new issue comes out to see the answer. 🙂
bikehikebabe,
What would happen if you tell Tom your theory and ask if he has other ideas? In other words, turn it into a learning conversation. Maybe that sounds boring, it’s just an idea.
Oh yes, he will have other ideas. But I will feel “in charge” (a sign of low self-esteem, but I accept that about myself).
Jean, these puzzles remind of how I struggled with my maths homework as a child. If I asked mammy for help she would say “The answer is (whatever) but don’t ask me how got it. She was always correct but could not explain the method. The method was the whole point in our homework.
Grannymar,
That must have been frustrating!
It sure was!