Time Spent Learning

You get better at Sudoku over time by getting smarter. There is no patterns, there are different difficulty levels, the more difficult the less information is provided.

You get smarter by understanding how to eliminate possibilities so that it can only be 1 correct answer. It’s hard to describe.

I developed several different methods of finding the correct answer. Once you develop sure thing methods you can work your way through the puzzle, even at the most difficult levels.

By process of elimination… I get you. I tend to use the method for problem-solving and such…

So more about memory than patterns? I might try a few puzzles, and see how I go.

Neuroplasticity is the new concept, in learning and mental health… I attended an online talk on it last week… lots of innovative methods being implemented.

Nope, not memory. I have the worst memory. I think because I don’t rely on it, never have. I process information like a processor rather than trying to recall something off a hard drive.

Memory is the hard drive.
Processing information is the CPU.

I have a GREAT CPU, and only a 10 meg hard drive. LOL

I think the first thing to spend the time to learn so as to not waste as much is what the second thing should be. :smiley:

Scrabble anyone? I love playing Scrabble.

Scrabble is kind of a memory type of game. You have certain letters and you search your memory with different configurations of those letters to come up with a word that is already in your memory.
You can learn new words from other people’s words, but the words you play are in your memory, and you simply recalled them.

Learning new ideas or “figuring stuff out” is not in your memory. You do not have that information in your memory, you “figure it out” and it is placed into memory as a new memory.

Sudoku requires you to “figure it out.” Having a good memory won’t help you in that game. You can be a math wizard, educated to the highest level, and suck at Sudoku, because it is not information you already have.
It is “figuring it out”, which is not in memory, and can not be learned in a classroom.

…and talking about memory reminded me of something:

I have a theory on what “deja vu” is. It’s when you process information of the moment, and before your consciousness makes sense of it, it is placed into memory first. So when you think you have a deja vu moment, it is because the moment is placed into memory before your consciousness is aware of it. When your consciousness becomes aware, it feels like you “remember” that happening before. Why do you feel like you remember it having happened before? Because it is already in memory. It made it to memory faster than your consciousness is aware, hence the feeling of having already been there and done that. :slight_smile:

I had that free iphone scrabble app. for awhile. You can play against the AI and other people too.

A good thought that you thought there… that would definitely apply to those instantaneous deja vus, where the thought of the event immediately precedes the event… tho I think not to the timelier ones that tend to dawn on us more slowly.

Motor Daddy

Scrabble also helps you to develop your ability to see patterns which is awesome. It raises your ability to focus and concentrate better and gives you a better memory. It also helps you think of better ways to do things. It is a game which has you thinking in every moment.

I have had an occasional feeling of “deja vu” which really did not mean much at all but made me think for a second or two - “hmmm - it seems like I have done this before in this exact same way” or something like that - but really considering how repetitious our lives are, why wouldn’t something like this occasionally occur.

But there was one time which I shall never ever forget and even now remembering those moments brings me back to it.
I do not even remember the place now, it was some beautiful shore area, which I knew back then that I had never visited.
What I remember is the sense that I had been there before, that I have to have been there before. It was almost like coming home for the first time in a long time. The sense of qualia which I experienced rolling into this beach area was so strong and
powerful and almost mystical. Yes, mystical is a perfect word for it. I seem to have remembered it the very first moment I saw it. Yes, I so love the beach and the ocean and I have been to many but never before have I ever experienced the pull and the familiarity and the love which came to me the first moment I gazed on it all. It was almost like all of time stopped and it was just me and that mystical ambiance. I have never felt this before or since those moments.

Yes, perhaps it seems to be a bit hyperbolic above but it is not. It is very difficult to describe an experience, event, sensation, emotion which occurs in that light but… well, that will never leave me.

Would you say that a person that plays a lot of Scrabble, and is good at it, would also be good at Sudoku, since they have expanded their mind so much playing Scrabble? No? Why not?

I play Scrabble pretty often and I am good at it - I love the game - but I have tried more than a few times my hand at Sudoku (not recently) but it was oh so difficult for me. Why? Who knows. My forte is words. My downfall is numbers.

Judging by my own self, I would not say that someone who plays Scrabble well will necessarily be just as good at Sudoku. Maybe it is a brain thing but I suppose that it is possible that the more one plays Sudoku, exercises stick-to-itiveness with it, the more one will become familiar and comfortable with the numbers as opposed to the words. Feeling kind of one-with-numbers may be the way to take on that journey.

Whodathunk? :wink:

Like I said earlier, Scrabble is a type of memory (hard drive) game, and Sudoku is a type of processor (CPU) game. Your forte is words because words are stored in memory, and you probably have a pretty good memory, so you’re good at Scrabble.

Sudoku is not about numbers, although numbers are the symbols used in the game. It has nothing to do with math, or numbers. The symbols could just as easily be characters, such as ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( . You just need to have all nine symbols in each row horizontally, and each column vertically. And you need to have all nine symbols in each of the small blocks, which have 9 squares. You have to figure it out, and having a great memory will not help you. Sudoku and Scrabble are two different games, one is a memory game, and one is a processor game.

So what do you think? An organized mind is the answer?

No. An organized mind would be like an organized hard drive. It would be like you just ran defrag. :slight_smile:

Learning to figure stuff out isn’t taught in the classroom, like words (language) are. You have to learn it on your own. You have to develop a better CPU in your brain, and use it. The more you use it the better it gets. :slight_smile:

MagsJ is kind of right. You are indeed relying on your memory, it’s just that you’re not aware of it. Once you discovered “sure thing methods” for eliminating possibilities, you stored them inside your memory so that you can invoke them the next time you want to solve a puzzle. Without relying on your memory, you’d be pretty slow. Thinking on its own is a pretty damn slow process.

While I do agree that the difference between more and less intelligent people lies in how fast they solve problems, I do not really believe the difference lies in their processing speeds. Rather, the difference lies in what’s stored in their memory and how well organized their memory is.

If you were truly all about processing speed, you’d have no problem forgetting past knowledge (e.g. MS DOS) and learning new one (e.g. iOS.) But you do – that’s why you started this thread, right?

Imagine if you had to derive the Pythogorean theorem each time you wanted to calculate the length of the hypotenuse. If you did it before, you could just retreive the idea of how to do it from your memory and execute it. It would take some time but it would take significantly less time than deriving the formula as if it was your first time. And both would take more time than simply retreiving the formula from the memory (which is what most people do.)

Finally, the extent to which your mind is organized determines how fast you can retreive memories. Problem solving ability can easily deteriorate if your memory is poorly organized.

I never mentioned speed, intelligence, or how fast they solve problems, that is your strawman.

An organized memory will not help you in Sudoku.

Being good at games such as Sudoku and Chess requires a lot of memory. They are not only about memory retrieval (they also require thought) but it’s an important aspect. You can’t be good at them without it.

Thanks