Puzzles Etc. - 2016-05-13 (page 1 of 4)

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12:02 AM

I think a math puzzle is one where there are many different creative ways to solve it

or rather.... if it requires you to do some special thinking other than just math

like perhaps one where the method of solving isn't immediately apparent

so example of a math puzzle would be that one with puzzle with the drone and 101s

a math problem would be something like: given a cube, suppose a sphere expands from each corner until they can no longer expand (when they touch another expanding sphere). How much space is left in the center?

To my mind that drone 101 puzzle doesn't look like a maths problem at all.. it looks like an enigmatic puzzle dressed up as a maths problem

its tagged as a calculation-puzzle though

and it shouldnt be a math "problem"

12:17 AM

I guess I'm thinking that for something to be a puzzle it needs to be: Not obvious what the solution is from the outset (and how to get to the solution), and have an elegant/surprising solution (that "aha" moment)

That triangle/rectangle one seems to have both of those... I would've said a "problem" is something where the path to the solution is obvious and you're just going through the motions (calculations, etc), whereas a "puzzle" is something where you have to think deeper and have an insight to reach the conclusion

12:29 AM

yea idk... i dont think i'll be taking part in the math debate / war thats going to happen soon lol

its really subjective.... since something like a sequence appears on math exams, but could be considered a puzzle if you have to figure out the formula for the sequence

but when theres a direct formula for it, then some people could argue that its no longer a puzzle

:) yeah... you'll notice I didn't VTC or VTrO

12:57 AM

good gracious y'all

I mean. Clearly new users' math puzzles get closed/deleted

old users' math puzzles don't.

That's the way things demonstrably work around here.

Can you point to some of the new user ones that have been deleted so I can compare?

I... can't point to anything that's been deleted. I can't see any of that post-graduation

but... you have used this site before, no?

no questions that were closed for being math have been deleted in the last 30 days

wait, this list doesn't actually seem to be showing 30 days

(sorry, going through the list of all closed questions now - it's a long list and I have to sort through duplicates et al)

the closed list does look like it's working right

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31700 puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/32210 puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31240

1:08 AM

it does, it's just long!

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31124 puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/32368

and the last one puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31049

looks like they used to have a better deleted posts list but they got rid of it :/

50

Q: Restore the 10k ability to see all closed/deleted posts in a list

A bunch of 10k links were removed early this month because: The other routes were not used (we're talking < 10 times in 3 days on the entire network) and were also crazy expensive to render. Seeing as we've moved and consolidated (and added to!) these lists on the other tabs, the old pages w...

feature-request 10k-tools recently-deleted recently-closed

I'll grant that a lot of the ones you linked are 'easy', and probably don't belong here, but the level of math education required doesn't really change the fact that math problems are math problems

(also what's with the arbitrary 30 day limitation, other than leaving out valid examples?)

the page only shows up to 30 days

ohhh, I just did a search for 'closed:yes'

which... again, gives a lot of duplicates and things closed for other reasons

using the data explorer I can get a list of deleted question ids

doesn't tell me what they were closed for

1:18 AM

haha I found a closed one that has a comment on it that I really think is shitty and illustrates my point but ... I have the accepted answer on it, so I won't post it because I know someone will claim I'm biased.

"Personally I love math puzzles, and often I also disagree with certain math puzzles being closed for being off-topic but this isn't a puzzle at all. This is all just basic geometry. It's the same as if you were to post a puzzle that only said "What is 1 + 1?". It's just too basic for it to be considered a puzzle, there is nothing puzzling about it."

What differentiates "basic geometry" from "basic set theory" or "basic graph theory" (etc etc)?

When it's literally just a matter of knowing what equation to plug the numbers into, why are puzzles requiring more complicated equations acceptable when others aren't (or vice-versa)?

Here's one I don't have an answer on: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/29120/geometry-puzzle

but won't that realistically apply to most (if not all) pure math puzzles?

funny you should say so!

what differentiates "basic geometry" from "basic cryptography"?

just because they're poor questions worth of down voting, doesn't necessarily make them not puzzles...

I don't know, but we've specifically disallowed math problems

we haven't disallowed codebreaking

we have a """policy"""

I looked through those links and I still see a difference between them and, say, the triangle/rectangle one. When I saw the answer to it, I smiled and saw the clean leap of logic (that didnt' even really require "maths" to get).. to me that's the mark of a puzzle.

1:23 AM

except... we don't actually enforce that policy when it's people we like posting things that are contrary to what it allows.

I mean look, I can keep posting links. I'm far and away not the only person who has brought this up.

I know, and I'm not singling you out... just trying to understand because it seems to be a hot topic with multiple people

but I get the impression from you/others that there's basically no such thing as a maths puzzle because they can all be boiled down to a "problem" statement

well, OK, sorry if that's how my complaint comes off, because that's not what I mean

I think some math puzzles can be interesting, and yeah, I can sort of see the case that's being made (now, after the fact) for the triangles/rectangles puzzle

(agree with the after the fact point - the question does look problem-esque)

but my complaint is honestly about the fact that we seem OK with math puzzles as long as it requires plugging numbers into an equation most high schoolers haven't heard of

but we close questions by new users without a second thought

I just want some kind of attempt at consistency

because the way it looks right now is that we let some people get away with a thing that others can't, and ... that's not a good look

Yeah. I see your point. Though I (personally) feel like it s a false correlation between new posters and closing... from what I see it seems that new posters are more likely to post lower quality content (I know I've improved), and that's why they're getting closed more.

1:30 AM

plus, as has come up in meta recently, we could have the ability to migrate math stuff that doesn't fit here to an appropriate SE, but we don't

so... math problems that the users could use real help with just end up getting quashed

so do you think people are being biased against simple math or against new users?

well, I think that people who have been around a while know not to post simple math

I kinda agree with Emrakul on that one though... there's very few that would actually be "appropriate" for another SE. There's no SE at the moment that hosts math problems posed by the community as "challenges".

because they learn that we are not friendly to it

so the system works? :P

1:32 AM

but where it is most noticeable is with new users

well, clearly it doesn't

if people are still posting math problems that are accepted by the community so capriciously

but I feel like that's more down to where that line is drawn in the sand (on the problem-puzzle continuum), not anything to do with the user who posted

Admittedly older users will get the benefit of the doubt more often, but haven't they earned that right?

well, then make the policy "if you haven't earned your keep, don't post math problems"

a bunch of people with nothing to worry about, reputation-wise, telling me "doesn't seem like a problem to me!" isn't very convincing

But it's not maths problems, it's bad questions... same happens with broad "lateral thinking", "riddle", etc puzzles too

but again, we don't have a policy against riddles

we don't close people's riddles claiming that they're Just Not The Done Thing, Here

but the only policy "against" math puzzles, is that they're not math "problems", yeah? So again, in that specific regard it comes down to where people draw that line, which is virtually impossible to build policy around...

1:38 AM

then...

why...

have...

that policy?

because it's the 80% rule... It's clear at the extremes, and only in the middle gets murky.

"we can't define it, so you're shit out of luck (while this other person gets a pass)" isn't a good policy. I mean. I don't think you could even claim that's a policy at all.

too broad is murky too

everything is murky if you start staring at the line in the middle

doesn't mean it's not helpful

"no math problems" removes a bunch of x = 3y questions for zero effort because it's clear

all (most?) those ones you linked to previously were pretty clear

well yes, "too broad" is... not a well defined policy either and I would never use it as a point of comparison, because it's badly, badly flawed

I didn't link them

..k, sorry... the ones linked earlier...

1:41 AM

I linked exactly one, which was no more "obviously" a math problem (as opposed to a puzzle) than anything Gamow posts

you're never (ever) going to have clear policy on what is inherently subjective definitions... that's the challenge, but that's why everyone gets a vote.

I quoted a comment that took an absolutely belligerent stance against the poster citing a standard that we absolutely cannot claim we apply to a number of users here

I mean, "nothing means anything, its all subjective lol" isn't a good argument, tbh

because, naturally, it's only ever deployed when someone doesn't want to account for a decision that doesn't meet the criteria that supposedly exists

I didn't say it was an argument... I said it's an impediment to 100% fool proof policy... and where the policy falls down, it become democratic voting to close/open

I'm not asking for a "100% fool proof policy", I'm asking that we not be demonstrably, nakedly biased in favor of our long-time users

this isn't some like, thought experiment where we're dealing in hypotheticals

And I guess I'm saying that I don't necessarily see that bias...

1:46 AM

well, I and others do

My 2c is that SE sites are community driven, so voting should be what counts. If the mods want to clear out the crud then they should delete posted questions that get a tonne of downvotes. Let people post maths problems, and delete them when the community has obviously aired it's opinion :)

that's not a stance that I necessarily disagree with

but aren't the long-time users the people who have a general sense of what the community is in favor of?

but... I've had positive-rep stuff deleted because... who knows, actually.

so you're asking the community not to favor people who post things they know the community favors

1:48 AM

yeah, but there isn't really a need to delete stuff straight away right?

I'm asking the community not to act one way toward one person and a different way toward another person

I'm asking that, if we're going to have "rules", that we actually apply them to people uniformly, instead of ... what we do.

I don't understand why the response to that request needs to be anything other than "yeah, we should do that"

y'all are going to Lengths to defend capricious behavior

...we should.. i'm questioning if we really don't...

I agree we should not treat anyone differently

well I guess anybody can just say we don't, and that's the end of the story!

19 mins ago, by f''

so do you think people are being biased against simple math or against new users?

1:50 AM

that's a false choice if I've ever seen one.

you can say "both"

but again, it's been decided, apparently, that what everybody with this complaint is noticing just doesn't happen

so whatever

I guess I'm yet to see any true examples which evidence any of these "issues" (but I'm not necessarily arguing that they don't exist, just that I haven't seen them... which is why I joined this discussion in the first place... to be convinced, since people clearly saw issues that I didn't)

I mean, you realize that, to "prove" my point to your satisfaction, I will have to go through literally ever post that's closed and present it to you, to be judged as to whether or not it is--in your words--"true evidence" of the issue

you realize that that endeavor is a losing proposition for me, by its very definition, right?

I do... and that sucks... but you have to understand my position too... I haven't yet seen any issue.

1:55 AM

OK

I'll take that with good faith

because I do believe you, honestly.

:) please do... i'm genuinely not trying to shit-stir

but you understand why I'm not particularly interested in engaging in that, I'm sure

like, I'll tell you right now: I will not be digging through every closed post just to try to prove my point

because goddamn, there are so many bad riddles in there

Like I see some of what you're getting at, and how it could be interpreted as bias against new users, but it feels like it's just a selection bias because new users are (generally) more likely to post poor quality content (of any type)

:) no worries... rest assured, Im' going to start paying closer attention from now on

you've always engaged me in good faith before

maybe i'll see it for myself, so your argument is at least not in vain

1:57 AM

so I trust you :)

I honestly don't see this as a thing I can convince people of if they haven't already taken notice of it

so... I get it

my hope is that either more people start to take notice of it, or--more preferably!--it just dissipates on its own

(so many bad riddles in the closed posts, extremely zizek voice my god)

agreed on both counts... this kind of tension can only be a negative for the community if it is prolonged, but hopefully a little burst of it every now and then just helps people to keep things in mind

yeah

I asked the question because I want to clarify which (or both, or neither) of these things you think is happening/is a problem:

1. Simple math problems are closed more than ones involving more complex math, even when they have the same amount of "puzzle"-ness, without considering who posted them.

2. New users' math questions are closed more than long-time users' math questions of the same quality and level.

Yeah, I do wonder about 1 sometimes... because (and I don't spend huge amounts of time looking at math puzzles) some solutions I can read and have that "aha" moment of seeing a clever solution, and sometimes, my eyes just glaze at a wall of mathjax... but that doesn't necessarily make them not puzzles, just that I'm not skilled enough to see the aha

As for 2, I do honestly feel that it's more that new users' questions are not of the same quality level (on average)

It's funny; I was just showing a puzzle to my wife (an engineering prof) and she said that it's hard for her to do puzzles for fun in her free time because so much of what she does at work is essentially solving puzzles

2:05 AM

OK so - my answer is that it's a combination of both - I think [1] is true, but new vs. old user plays a part. I think [2] is (at least mostly) true, but I think that there is probably some correlation between 'new'ness and 'simple'ness

though if I had to pick the one I think is more strongly true (YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN DON'T PICK THIS WORD CHOICE APART), it's [1] by far

like, there are obviously some people who come to literally just straight up post their homework, or a question they missed on a test

and those are never "simple" math

...1 is also likely the bigger challenge (policy/community-wise), because it has a requisite level of skill to be able to determine

right, which is why I was saying what I was saying earlier - I feel like, if you're saying "sheesh I could open up a geometry book and the formula would be right there!!!", you have to admit that there are healthy puzzles here for which you could say the same thing, replacing "geometry" with something 'college'-level

(or whatever. again: you know what I mean)

I can agree with that. I'll likely never VTC/O a complex math question because I can't tell if it's puzzle or a problem (without more work than I'm prepared to put in to understanding it)

even "wall of mathjax" (a good example might be one of the many 'prove that...' puzzles there are here) is still ultimately just that.

yeah

and you know - I don't hate them. I think some are interesting

drawing a parallel with SO, there are questions asked that are basically right there in the manual, but they're still considered on-topic

2:11 AM

and of course, I love a problem that seems like it involves something far beyond my ken, only to reveal itself to be simple at its core

totally agree. In some ways that's, to me, the true essence of a puzzle. Everything else aside, a puzzle is something which does not have an immediately obvious solution, or an obvious path to reach it, but has an elegant, "simple" solution requiring (or providing on reading a solution) a leap of logic that provides an "aha" moment.

yeah

looking at an answer and going "oh. apparently there was a... weierstrass transform involved. the answer is 1.000553." is not satisfying at all.

(one of you is going to make fun of me for not understanding in what context a weierstrass transform would even exist but that's fine. I'm not even mad.)

sheesh.. noob

but what if the use of a weierstrass transform was not obvious, and made the solution much easier than it would have been without?

To be honest, I'm seeing more puzzles appearing lately (that we're accidentally self-selecting towards), where that aha moment is lost because of a need to make the puzzle "hard", meaning the puzzle devolves into lots of trial and error, until you get a "finally..." moment, rather than an "of course!" moment.

2:18 AM

well, that's certainly an interesting turnabout of the concept

haha yeah

but @f'' that's worth discussing

because to me... I hate it? That sounds awful? but it sounds awful because I'm pretty sure whatever the fuck a weierstrass transform is is way beyond whatever the puzzle seemed to be about in the first place

so... it would certainly be a puzzle that would be--in a very cold, hateful way--within the bounds of what we are sort-of defining as a 'good puzzle'

..in fact it kind of overlaps with the issue I was raising... if the weierstrass transform was not obvious, is there some clever hint that might lead someone to it? Or did it just require the solver to have prior knowledge that the WT applies to this kind of situation

right ok

see

that's what I'm talking about

nevermind the fact that even if I figured out through some kind of clue that the puzzle required a WT and I would have literally zero clue of how to apply it

but that's literally the kind of thing I'm talking about - puzzles (or problems) that essentially only require that you know the shibboleth

(in a way, this is what a lot of trivia is)

Does anyone else think one of the default search filters (the ones you can click like "Newest"/"Featured"...) should be the result of a hasaccepted:false search?

a lot of people are really good at knowing how to spell words but couldn't write a good story for shit

@JA That's part of what I meant by the self-selecting towards hard puzzles over clever puzzles

everyone is (and I don't have a problem with it, I do it to) focusing on the unsolved puzzles, so hard puzzles "survive" longer, and get more views/votes than good puzzles.

2:26 AM

broad puzzles also seem to attract a lot of attention due to receiving many answers

I wasnt asking in relation to the current debate :)

but yes agreed :)

only natural, especially since answers get rep

indeed. more answers => more bumps => more likely to end up in HNQ => more views/votes

oh for the record I agree about the search filters

Gordon Allocman

Alternatively, hard puzzles can get largely ignored/forgotten due to their difficulty

:) but yes, it would be useful (on this site)

2:28 AM

I always like things I can click that save me typing

where should I ask for opinion? meta.puzzling or meta?

That's also true.. once they fall off the front page, they can stagnate

like my latest puzzle has a single answer - a community wiki so it is not in the unanswered tab

but the comunity wiki is not yet actually an answer in the true meaning

It makes you want to post hints to get it back into view :p

like I did for my crossword / sudoku

@JA - I think that's a pretty common approach... and it does highlight a flaw in the system, which a true "unsolved" tab would fix

I've also noticed a difference in response depending on time of day/day of week when you post an update/hint

yep

Gordon Allocman

2:31 AM

There was a meta post about that

which again, highlights an issue more than anything

there was, but it was brushed away, because that kind of thinking is ..."wrong" (even it it's true)

so where should I ask for opinion for the feature request?

meta.puzzling?

or meta?

Probably the best place to start IMHO is meta.PSE... because puzzles are a little more prone to the issue given that people are actively trying (and failing) to find unsolved puzzles

Gordon Allocman

When I asked a similar question, I was simply told how to do it, hopefully you will have more luck

OK will post a question :)

Well I know how to do it for myself - I just think "unanswered" would be better as "unsolved"

Gordon Allocman

2:34 AM

I personally spend most of my time looking at the newest tab of the hasaccepted:no query unless I posted a question and am checking for updates, so I definitely agree

I think part of the problem (from a stack exchange wide point of view) is that if people post questions, but don't actually tick the solved box, they're "unanswered" forever, which would very rapidly just clog that list with answered, but not accepted questions.

(and I believe this is why the "unanswered" list is the way it is - if it has an upvoted answer, then it's fairly likely to have a "solution" in a general Q&A sense)

but (as usual) PSE is a bit different, because almost universally, puzzle posers will hang around to select the correct solution, once solved, so we won't really have many "solved, but not accepted" questions on this site

Gordon Allocman

Yeah you can't go too far back, then its like trying to find a needle in a haystack

Part of that haystack being questions by users who have left PSE

2

Q: Change "unanswered" search to "unsolved"

I generally use the filter hasaccepted:false, and think others do too. The clickable searches include unanswered which, on puzzling, may be more useful if it were unsolved since puzzles often get some kind of answer or answers before being solved (nearest thing filterable being hasaccepted). I ...

feature-request

yes, we would need to keep on top of any questions that seem to be solved but unaccepted :)

but still think the tab would be better than unanswered

3:17 AM

slightly ontopic question: how to filter out riddles? :P

search "-riddle"

3:31 AM

where is the search -crap ?

3

:p

10

A: Can you explain these equations?

Turns out the people were actually They needed The cost for these was

oh, we need that one

new equations; one of wich is actually correct

21*21*21*5/315-62=85

I love how every answer got a matching edit on that question

"maybe the handwriting was slanted"

"he is really impressed by the man's immaculate and unslanted penmanship"

yeah

I'm chating with James right now

the answer you referred to

off-site

I know him :)

4:00 AM

Can someone remember (or see the deleted) PB riddle so I can ask my friend?

"You could sleep with me but..."

"You could try taking a snooze with this..."

You could try taking a snooze with this
It won't be pleasant, won't bring you any bliss
It's practically everywhere, maybe even on your skin
But you wouldn't bring it near the faces of your kin
Even it though makes lots of noise, no one pays attention to it
Until one collapses and dies from its hit
There are no puncture wounds, no scars, no scabs
And it won't be a good glove when you throw a jab

thanks!!

I hope your friend doesn't think too long about it

giving him 5 guesses before punchline I think :)

well he's had about ten and still going

4:22 AM

...what was the answer?

heh seriously?

dont say he is still guessing and could snoop :p

I gave him P_A 10 letters 2 words

@Alconja it's not hard to find with a search :P

..oh.. thought someone said it was deleted

I thought it was

ok he's not in the room

plastic bag

..oh... that one. found it (had already dvoted it)

4:26 AM

^^

Just noticed wesley was really close with his interpretation of the snooze clue

You could try taking a snooze with this
I mean, you could take a snooze with just about anything

yeah I often do :p

given him the spaced out and obfuscated clue now too: Polish poison B radio silver

so he has PLAS

that got it

:D

@Khale_Kitha: Second part of the hint: "The only evidence you could make use of was the time they told you." So what was the time they told? Then connect it to the first part of the hint. "You decrypted the missing word by initially regrouping the numbers."

4:54 AM

May 6 at 21:57, by f''

15 57 16 22 6 5 47

5:14 AM

He says "the egg timer wasnt working so I had to write it all down and do the calculation myself: 34 plastic bag 4 - 44 plastic bag 6 / 528 - 24 pastic bag 11 = 101"

5:26 AM

I don't know what "the time they told" even means. It's not a sentence, to me.

(Off to bed)

gn

5:46 AM

The first message must be consistent in itself, because it was sent as one to the phone. You have to deal with numbers and the only other number that appears is in the sentence: "GO TO THE BOOK STORE AT THE RAILWAY STATION TOMORROW 8 AM IDENTIFY ASKING FOR A ..." It could just be a time, but it also serves as a hint.

If you have ciphers, they often appear in groups of five (I could have done this too) and many times, the first step is to find the right transposition, meaning regrouping/rearranging the numbers before further processing.

Do you have an alternate wording for "the time they told you" that better fits to what I am trying to say? I could edit the hint then.

Got it now?

I'm referring to puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/32412/the-trained-agent, by the way (for those listening)

2 hours later…

7:55 AM

I think that I should ping the creators of this site to remind them about so many feature requests on our meta PSE.

But how?

Okay got it.

There's heaps of feature requests, but many of them seem (to me at least) very low priority

18

Q: Can we get +10 reputation for upvotes on questions?

It used to be, a long, long time ago, that asking a question awarded +10 reputation. After some deliberation, this was changed to +5 reputation network-wide. The reasons at the time for this change basically amounted to: Questions don't take much effort to ask. The reward for a good question is...

feature-request questions up-votes reputation

But this one is a feature request about which I am eager to know

As much as I support it, I doubt it'll ever happen

@KoA But it's worth a try. :)

definitely

1 hour later…

9:14 AM

121

Q: Increase reputation awarded for questions

It has come to my attention that the amount of reputation awarded for questions can be adjusted on a per-site basis. For example, Stack Apps awards +10 reputation for question upvotes. As you probably already know, we currently award +5 reputation, as do most Stack Exchange sites, including Stack...

feature-request questions reputation

9:35 AM

@KoA Other people on SE have mixed opinions on this thing.

I have a pretty neutral opinion myself

It's something I support

but I don't think it's that big of a deal if it doesn't happen

I understand.

Personally, I think it the best (though most likely unfeasible option) is to be given a testing ground to see how this change affects reps on the site

The change form +5 to +10 might turn out to be too dramatic

2 hours later…

11:49 AM

@JonathanAllan that picture frames answer is so good imo

@JonathanAllan though to be fair, the asker (as far as I can tell) hasn't done anything wrong - people keep trying to introduce new things to the scenario that were actually already addressed in the original question

@KoA I can sort of see how, given people's propensity to upvote things (since it doesn't cost anything), it could turn into rep farming. But, and this is crucial, that's one of those things that happens about 0.00001x as often as people who are afraid of it think it does.

anytime I see a suggestion turned down with a reason of "but a bunch of people will do X!" it's like, name the last time that happened.

everybody's scared of these phantom abuses that either never happen, or happen so rarely that it would be extremely trivial to deal with them.

(abuses, no less, by users who don't have enough rep to do any damage)

12:09 PM

I wasn't so much talking about system abuse, more about the rep loss from downvoted not being enough to compensate for the raised up vote value

And just doubling both of them could make rep a lot more 'volatile', not sure if that's a good thing

That's why a test run first would be beneficial

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/29603166#29603166 - Sigh @ the stupidity.

:D

flags every question on PSE as plagiarized

I'mma just sit here while he goes and finds duplicates of every one of my puzzles that occurred before I posted them.

12:25 PM

@Khale_Kitha hahaha that's some real death of the author shit

no question is original... because all of our questions are colored with centuries of collective experience... make's you think

you think it's bad with questions? When i try to write music I want to dieeeeee because everything sounds similar to something that already exists

same

my last composition was a medieval inspired small ensemble piece and oh my

*oh my god

It took me about a week just to find chords that weren't so overused but still sounded medieval

yeah

Yeah, it's hard to write music without taking the things you've ever heard as pieces of it, for sure, lol.

Music sticks with us =D

12:28 PM

Apr 27 at 16:36, by question_asker

(also there's a musical phrase in one of my songs that I found out sounds too much like the 'pop some tags' line in that macklemore song)

Point in Case: Every song ever written in C, F, G, C, F A, G or C, F, G, C, C, F, G, G, C

lol

and that was a piece I started writing before that fucking macklemore song existed

4 chord songs make me want to die

Hehe

I like them, if they're good

12:29 PM

^

language

I used to have an issue with them, too, Koa - and I tried really hard to try and write things taht weren't 4-chord

3- or 4-chord songs can be super dope. I like catchy stuff, I like stuff with clever lyrics

And then I realized that I was restricting myself, too much

My medieval piece is in A Dorian

12:30 PM

So I still try to avoid it, but I don't prevent it, anymore.

but I tend to write stuff that I find challenging on some level

with a key change to Ab Aeolian

my favorite thing on my soundcloud is the least 'structured' thing I've ever written

I love that type of stuff

Stravinsky is bae

Heck, half the stuff I've bothered to put up on my soundcloud couldn't even be said to have a chord structure, due to not having enough notes. Heh

But that tends to be the case with game music for certain types of games.

12:32 PM

I'm way too self conscious to upload anything hahaha

my brother is a lot better at writing structured stuff than I am

I was for a long time, too - KK and I have talked about never feeling like our stuff was "done"

but one day I ripped the bandaid off, so to speak

it's nice to be able to show people stuff

I have the benefit of my hands and ears knowing what should sound good, next. (Though it can diverge)

Makes it nice when I want to relax and play the piano in the dark, without thinking.

yeah

I draw way too much inspiration from ZUN sometimes

I kinda hate it but I also love it

I never quite got there, I don't think - I'm way better at sight-reading than I am at improvising

(not that these are diametrically opposed skills, but they're generally seen as such)

12:33 PM

(ZUN is the creator of Touhou if anyone's confused)

Yeah, my wife is that way. She still can't fathom how I play by ear.

Though I'm really good at sightreading, ...

I tend to sightread until I have it memorized.

And then play by ear.

people in bands are amazed that I can sight read like I do, but I'm amazed that they can just start going with someone else's idea

yeah

I've gotten better over the years, but it's still a skill that doesn't really come "naturally" to me

I can sort of do both, but my sight reading on piano isn't super great

Much better sight reading on clarinet

12:35 PM

I'm not sure I'd be able to be in a band. A good band wouldn't have me because I don't have experience and I can't tolerate the sound of off-pitch junk. LoL

It physically hurts.

I try to avoid being critical of it, in church, but it hurts to hear one particular couple when they are up on stage singing. lol

tell me about itttt

I try to keep all criticism to myself unless they ask for some

yeah

I meant I try not to think critically about them, but can't help it

And then I feel bad

I love being given (constructive) criticism

True, as hard as it can be to find.

Now to re-read what fondor said, again, and see if I can figure out something from it..

Criticism is the greatest thing when it comes to try and improve in anything

12:40 PM

The internet would like a word with you, KoA. Hahaha

I can't figure out why this is bothering me.

I like fondor's puzzle, but something about the method for solving the numbers being a random word (or, in this case number) from the decrypted first string, bugs me - but I don't know why.

But if I regroup the numbers, by 8, so far i'm coming up with this:

Not really changing anything for me.

The fact that they actually regroup is a good sign, though.

Even turning every 4-char subset into unicode only nets me:

Ḽ ᝲᏭ э ྥэ धѡ ߑ߸ ྦ

Looks like something @question_asker might be able to read. :P

ध looks like a hindi letter.

pronounced as 'dha'

dha dha dha :P

But yeah - I'm pretty sure I don't have the right rabbit hole, so I'm coming back up from here to find another one.

I like your puzzle, btw, @Koa

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