full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Scott Kim: The art of puzzles

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, that was my first pzluze. I got hooked. I creeatd something new, I was very excited because, you know, I'd made crossword puzzles, but that's sort of like filling in somebody else's matrix. This was something really oaniirgl. I got hooked. I read mirtan Gardner's columns in Scientific American. Went on, and eventually decided to devote myself, full time, to that.

Now, I should pause and say, what do I mean by puzzle? A puzzle is a problem that is fun to solve and has a right answer. "Fun to solve," as opposed to everyday problems, which, fnrlaky, are not very well-designed puzzles. You know, they might have a solution. It might take a long time. Nobody wrote down the reuls clearly. Who dnegesid this? It's like, you know, life is not a very well-written story so we have to hire writers to make movies.

Open Cloze


Now, that was my first ______. I got hooked. I _______ something new, I was very excited because, you know, I'd made crossword puzzles, but that's sort of like filling in somebody else's matrix. This was something really ________. I got hooked. I read ______ Gardner's columns in Scientific American. Went on, and eventually decided to devote myself, full time, to that.

Now, I should pause and say, what do I mean by puzzle? A puzzle is a problem that is fun to solve and has a right answer. "Fun to solve," as opposed to everyday problems, which, _______, are not very well-designed puzzles. You know, they might have a solution. It might take a long time. Nobody wrote down the _____ clearly. Who ________ this? It's like, you know, life is not a very well-written story so we have to hire writers to make movies.

Solution


  1. original
  2. puzzle
  3. martin
  4. rules
  5. frankly
  6. created
  7. designed

Original Text


Now, that was my first puzzle. I got hooked. I created something new, I was very excited because, you know, I'd made crossword puzzles, but that's sort of like filling in somebody else's matrix. This was something really original. I got hooked. I read Martin Gardner's columns in Scientific American. Went on, and eventually decided to devote myself, full time, to that.

Now, I should pause and say, what do I mean by puzzle? A puzzle is a problem that is fun to solve and has a right answer. "Fun to solve," as opposed to everyday problems, which, frankly, are not very well-designed puzzles. You know, they might have a solution. It might take a long time. Nobody wrote down the rules clearly. Who designed this? It's like, you know, life is not a very well-written story so we have to hire writers to make movies.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
computer games 3
discover magazine 2
puzzle calendar 2
long time 2
white area 2
rush hour 2
social media 2
big hit 2


Important Words


  1. american
  2. answer
  3. columns
  4. created
  5. crossword
  6. decided
  7. designed
  8. devote
  9. eventually
  10. everyday
  11. excited
  12. filling
  13. frankly
  14. full
  15. fun
  16. hire
  17. hooked
  18. life
  19. long
  20. martin
  21. matrix
  22. movies
  23. opposed
  24. original
  25. pause
  26. problem
  27. problems
  28. puzzle
  29. puzzles
  30. read
  31. rules
  32. scientific
  33. solution
  34. solve
  35. sort
  36. story
  37. time
  38. writers
  39. wrote