wu :: forums - Print Page


    
      
        wu :: forums
        (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)
      

        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> Riddles In The Real-World?
        
(Message started by: william wu on Nov 19^th, 2002, 6:14am)

Title: Riddles In The Real-World?
Post by william wu on Nov 19^th, 2002, 6:14am

If you're in industry, how often do you come across riddle-like problems in the real world?

On average, do you view these riddles as useful models for problems that could come up offline, or are they pretty much just for recreation?

What profession would be closest to doing riddles like the ones on this site all day long? I asked one of my professors and he said I could just make crossword puzzles for the rest of my life. Well I didn't need to study four years of engineering to do that :P

Title: Re: Riddles In The Real-World?
Post by Garzahd on Nov 19^th, 2002, 11:25am

Well, my job often requires thought, but not really "puzzles" as such... and when there are puzzles, they're not nearly as cool as the ones here. :-)

On the other hand, after playing bridge competitively, I sometimes envy those who play the game professionally. Bridge is one of the few games in which players of any level can enter a tournament and compete against the best players in the country. There are LOTS of cool puzzles that come up in bridge all the time, and the inferences made by expert players are simply amazing at times.

I don't really want to turn this site into a bridge problem resource, but I recommend learning the game. Maybe you can play professionally one day :-)

Title: Re: Riddles In The Real-World?
Post by Icarus on Nov 19^th, 2002, 3:57pm

Research math is essentially nothing more than working puzzles, except that you are expected to write your solutions up nicely and get them published. More generally, I suspect that the harder a science is, the more puzzle-like working in it is. (Soft sciences are puzzling, but not puzzle-like, as you can never be sure that your answers are even on the right track.)

In my official job, Mass Properties engineer, most of what I do is straightforward following of procedures. I.e. not puzzling at all. But at least half of my time lately has been spent in writing and rewriting the UNIX scripts that we use. This regularly presents me with puzzle-like challenges. ("WHY WON'T THIS STUPID PROGRAM WORK??" ;)) I would guess that real programming is high in "puzzlement", though other professions may be higher.

Title: Re: Riddles In The Real-World?
Post by James Fingas on Nov 20^th, 2002, 1:47pm

My job is a design-oriented electrical engineering job, and I must say that I use puzzling skills quite often during the day.

Part of the time, it's when designing. You know what you want the circuit to do, and you know many ways to build a circuit that does that, but the puzzling skill is figuring out what is necessary and what is not, seeing things that you can simplify or eliminate, and recognizing when a circuit is logically inconsistent. Often you have to think outside of just a single circuit, and often you need to use your creativity. Both of these skills are honed by puzzling regularly.

Most of the time, however, I use puzzling skills when talking to other people. I feel that a great part of communication is simplifying what you are trying to say, and making it so completely obvious that nobody can help but understand it. In order to communicate, therefore, you have to have a very convincing reason to believe what you do, and you have to convey those reasons as you speak. Basically, in order for the person to understand what you really want to tell them, they have to understand the framework that you've built up underneath it in your own mind. Until they get to that point, you can tell them what needs to be done, but they either won't do what you were thinking, or they'll come across a problem that they don't know how to overcome.

It's sort of like giving a person a fish versus teaching a person how to fish. If your communication gives a person the information you want to give them, then they can do exactly as much as you've told them. If your communication gives the person the underlying facts and assumptions, and then shows them your reasoning all the way from there to your final conclusion, then they will be able to work in exactly the way you are expecting, and they can overcome unforseen difficulties, filling in the gaps by working out the things that you didn't explicitly tell them.

To sum up, I use puzzling skills every day when I work through a problem logically and completely, and figure out the most sound and consistent basis for action that's available. In this way, I get things done faster and better, even though I spend more time just sitting and thinking. And other people end up less confused, because I'm more sure of what I'm doing.