Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Self Improvement And Fun Games

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

I received a gift of a game called Mad Gab. Mad Gab is a traditional game from Mattel. The basis of the game is a play on words that challenges your verbal and reasoning skills. You are given a very short time to decipher 3 phrases that are misspelled.

Example: ACE LIP PUFF THAT HUNG if you speak it out becomes A SLIP OF THE TOUNGE. Try saying ACE LIP PUFF THAT HUNG quickly. It will somewhat sound like A SLIP OF THE TOUNGE. In theory, the game should take 45 minutes to play. My in-laws and my wife and I played for close to 2 hours straight. It is a challenge and we only played on the basic level.

I enjoy this game because you really have to think. Having worked with people who are not familiar with English, I've learned to guess what people are saying. So maybe I have a bit of an edge. Either way, I really enjoyed the mental exercise. I heartily recomend the game Mad Gab. It's rated at ages 10+ but I found it challenging enough for four well educated adults to enjoy.

Has anyone else played this game? If so, what are your thoughts? How about Pit, or Asimov Super Quiz? Anyone with kids probably has quite a few.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to add another fun and mentally engaging game. It's called "Su Doku." My brother introduced me to this game on my vacation, and it's just marvelous. (The timing was convenient, too, as it's great for plane rides.) You can get information at the game at www.sudoku.com. This quote from that page sums up why I think many of you will also find it entertaining:

"You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic."

I recommend purchasing a book of puzzles from whatever book retail outlet you use. If money's a concern for you as it is for me, fear not. Books can be had for under ten dollars, and it's a lot of entertainment hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to add another fun and mentally engaging game. It's called "Su Doku." My brother introduced me to this game on my vacation, and it's just marvelous. (The timing was convenient, too, as it's great for plane rides.) You can get information at the game at www.sudoku.com. This quote from that page sums up why I think many of you will also find it entertaining:

"You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic."

I recommend purchasing a book of puzzles from whatever book retail outlet you use. If money's a concern for you as it is for me, fear not. Books can be had for under ten dollars, and it's a lot of entertainment hours.

Man, and I thought cricket was hard to figure out. Actually, the Su Doku seems interesting. I'll have to pick up one of the seeming millions of books on it. Looks quite challenging. Thanks.

Though what I'd like to find is a place to learn Go. I've played a simple online version and I find the mindset required to play very interesting. Much more like rugby vs the chess/football mindset.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Though what I'd like to find is a place to learn Go. I've played a simple online version
Internet Go servers are a perfect place to learn how to play - I would recommend the Kiseido Go Server (KGS), since it has a user friendly interface and a helpful community. Indeed, the Go community tends to be very friendly and eager to help new players, so you should be able to find people on KGS who will be happy to answer any questions you have, on the implicit understanding that you will help new players in turn once you become decent.

To get yourself familiar with the basic rules, theres an interactive tutorial here. However, the best resource for Go related information is the Sensei's Library - a huge wiki devoted entirely to Go. Pretty much anything you need can be found here, from beginners information to discussion of expert strategy, and the history of the game. Its the kind of site you can lose hours just browsing around at random, and they have a large section devoted to beginners information. which includes a page explaining the rules and a study section detailing the sort of things you need to learn to become an intermediate level player.

Go has a fairly steep learning curve, since at the start you really have no idea what youre doing, and the size of the board and number of options available at each move can be quite intimidating. But if you keep reading material about tactics and strategy while also playing lots of games against other new players on KGS (perhaps on smaller boards - 13x13 instead of 19x19 - for your first few games, although you want to move up to fullsize as soon as possible to avoid picking up bad habits), you should pick up the raw basics after a couple of weeks. And the more you understand, the more fun it becomes.

You might also want to check out the Go Teaching Ladder - a site where people can submit their games for stronger players to review. You dont have to submit your own game to benefit - all the games which have been reviewed are available for download, so you can read the comments which stronger players left on the games of people around your level and learn from them (it tends to be the case that people around the same skill level make the same sort of mistakes, so you can learn a lot from the advice given to someone else).

Good luck if you do start playing, and if youve got any questions feel free to message me.

Edited by Hal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to add another fun and mentally engaging game. It's called "Su Doku." ... You can get information at the game at www.sudoku.com.

I think that the following websites are more useful for learning Sudoku:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

http://www.websudoku.com

I find it fascinating myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good call. I've been using websudoku a great deal lately. I'm trying to my get average on the easy ones down to under 4 minutes. I find that the easy ones are good practice in assessing a puzzle visually at the beginning, which is useful for the starting phase of the harder ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Though what I'd like to find is a place to learn Go. I've played a simple on-line version, and I find the mindset required to play very interesting.

GO is quite interesting. I also like the Manga about it -- "Hikaru no GO". However, I should point out two problems that I have experienced:

1. To become really good at GO, you must start as a child and study it constantly. It is significantly more complex than chess.

2. Like any competitive sport, to enjoy it you must have a "killer instinct". That is, you must not be deterred by compassion for your opponents; and you must enjoy winning more than you fear losing.

I've been using websudoku a great deal lately. I'm trying to my get average on the easy ones down to under 4 minutes. I find that the easy ones are good practice in assessing a puzzle visually at the beginning, which is useful for the starting phase of the harder ones.

I am much slower than that, so far, although I am speeding up. I usually play at the "Hard" level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. To become really good at GO, you must start as a child and study it constantly. It is significantly more complex than chess.
Well, it depends what you mean by 'really good'. To be a top professional, ie one of the best players in the world, then yes you probably need to start as a child. But then I assume the same applies to soccer, basketball, martial arts, and many other things. Noone is going to start playing soccer at the age of 18 and then go on to play for Barcelona or Manchester United.

I would guess that you can become a good amateur dan Go player no matter how late you start. I reached 5k in about 8 months which, despite not being anywhere close to 'really good', is still decent enough to enjoy the game and understand some non-trivial things about it. Admittedly I was playing/studying for 3-4 hours a day, almost every day, but meh.

Hikaru no Go is cool :ninja:

Edited by Hal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be a top professional, ie one of the best players in the world, then yes you probably need to start as a child. But then I assume the same applies to soccer, basketball, martial arts, and many other things. Noone is going to start playing soccer at the age of 18 and then go on to play for Barcelona or Manchester United.

You may be interested to know that Hakeem Olajuwon did not begin playing basketball until age 15. (source) Not that your point isn't true as a general rule, but he is a notable exception, assuming by "child" you meant earlier sometime earlier than 15. I think that's pretty amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This come thanks to Diana's "Noodle Food" blog...

Check if you have the reflexes of James Bond.

Haning on for 18 seconds is supposed to be above average. After 10 minutes of trying, the max I reached was a little below 13; so, the secret service is out for me.

Someone on "The Forum" reached 51!!! Can anyone top that? It would be nice if the site retained a top-10 scores list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. After 3-4 minutes I have gotten myself up to 17 seconds...though like Diana I normally kick the pail at 11 seconds :P.

The game's movement follows a pattern that you can learn to cope with. At around 17 seconds, the game gets distinctly *faster* though, so it seems to get a bit tougher there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Sudoku - three more addicts.. me, my wife, and to a lesser degree my son.

Funny story (at least it seemed so at the time) relating this as well. All three of us are home. After my wife had spent a considerable amount of time working on some puzzles, she needed to come find me for something. She walked down the hall to the computer room (we each have a computer, all networked together) and the door was open but the room was empty. She noticed the bathroom door closed and my son's door closed. Apparently with puzzling on the brain, she consciously started trying to solve "the puzzle" of which room should contain me, and which room should contain my son. Now normally this would require very little thought process to determine that the best way to accurately solve the puzzle in the least amount of time would be to call out my name or knock on one of the doors. She was so "hung up" on the reasoning from puzzling that it actually seemed to slow her "normal" reasoning down a second or two before she realized THIS IS NOT SUDOKU. HAHAHA!!!

I can remember experiencing this type of phenomena when I played Tetris too much. My mind would be thinking of situations like Tetris pieces falling and I was trying to fit them in place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can remember experiencing this type of phenomena when I played Tetris too much. My mind would be thinking of situations like Tetris pieces falling and I was trying to fit them in place.

It's funny that you mention that as an example. I've had the exact same experience with Tetris after playing for any extended amount of time. Once, a friend and I were playing the game for several hours. Afterwards I remember saying something like, "we turned off the game but it's still going on in my head." My mind was actively imagining shapes descending and was trying to fit them into the proper place.

Interestingly, my friend, who played the game just as long and as intently said he experienced no such phenomenon. I always thought it odd that he could "turn it off" while my mind was still very actively involved. I'm still curious whether studying this type of phenomenon could provide some insight into how different people use their brains to focus. Perhaps a clue as to how to think or focus more effectively is in there somewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night (life-long problem :devil: ), so ever since I became sudokified, I've been playing every night before bed until I think I'll be able to get to sleep--sometimes for a couple of hours. On my later nights, when I close my eyes to go to sleep, all I see is numbered squares. I have a friend who does pen & paper sudoku and he says the same thing happens to him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone's got any tips for beating the "evil" puzzles on websudoku in under 12 minutes, please let me know.

If anyone has any tips on completing "evil" puzzles on websudoku period, please let me know. :)

I'm sad to say I have yet to progress to "hard" so far. I've only been playing a week though. I'm guessing my strategies are still rudimentary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing that's absolutely essential is to turn on pencil marking if you haven't already. It's under the options menu. It allows you to keep track of multiple possibilities at one time, which you will need to do the tougher puzzles. One strategy this allows you to utilize is where two cells in a grid have the same two numbers as possibilities, and only those two numbers, then you can eliminate those numbers as possibilities from anywhere else in that grid. Example:

1 3 8

2 [6, 7] [6, 7]

[4, 5, 6] 9 [4, 5, 7]

Since those two middle cells have only 6 and 7, then 6 and 7 must appear in those two cells. So you can eliminate the 6 and 7 in the other cells as possibilities (leaving you with another two grouping in this case). Hope this helps. Apologies if you knew it already.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies if you knew it already.

I did know that, but no need to apologize. I'll take any suggestion at this point.

My problem comes when I get to a point in the puzzle where there seem to be no more definite numbers and I have to project the consequences of picking one of two numbers on the rest of the puzzle. This seems an inefficient way to solve them, particularly since I do try it without writing multiple numbers down. I will try the mulitple numbers option and see how it works.

Is it normal to get to that point where no more logical conclusions can be drawn without projecting ahead?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...