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Post by zaphod73491 on Aug 8, 2019 19:43:13 GMT -5
Top searchers by what measure? # of BOTG trips? Sacha, Cynthia and Dal would be near the top of such a list. # of years in the search? # of miles travelled searching? Money spent? And do any of these things count as far as the unknowable # of clues solved?
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 0:34:21 GMT -5
It's not really the point - pick your own 5 if you like, or the 5 people who always succeed at treasure hunts, or have won the most by value or number.
Just a group of decent hunters with experience rather than people picked at random. I wouldn't include people who charge about the countryside based on one clue fragment on the off chance.
Just thinking laterally on how to solve a problem, given no restrictions. I think if the temperament of the searchers is right, it might actually work...
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Post by zaphod73491 on Aug 9, 2019 0:41:19 GMT -5
It's not really the point - pick your own 5 if you like, or the 5 people who always succeed at treasure hunts, or have won the most by value or number. Just a group of decent hunters with experience rather than people picked at random. I wouldn't include people who charge about the countryside based on one clue fragment on the off chance. Just thinking laterally on how to solve a problem, given no restrictions. I think if the temperament of the searchers is right, it might actually work... Prison inmates has been tried, so there is precedent. ;-) Treasure-hunt solvers seem to be largely one-offs, which probably isn't that unexpected. You need to think like the puzzle designer to solve it, and every puzzlemaker is different. So if you happened to be perfectly in tune with a past treasure hunt designer, it's not likely you will hit the lottery twice with another.
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 0:56:11 GMT -5
Very good point. So we get some proven problem solvers (rather than puzzle solvers) in a room and say "how do we even approach this". Again, this is just a hypothetical meeting.
To your point, do you know or can you imagine anyone with a similar 'profile' to Forrest? The group of problem solvers might say "one avenue might be to run the poem past an American ex fighter pilot who then went on to commercial success, who is in their 80s".
Or it might all be nonsense. Just thinking.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 2:28:49 GMT -5
Since we are on the topic and curiosity killed the cat... who are the top 5 or so searchers out there?Jenny if asking is not appropriate please forgive me for doing so. That would be, at best, just a guess. And it could degenerate into a high school popularity contest. Over at HOD, there's already a tendency to anoint the most frequent posters as the most knowledgeable, just as there is a tendency to anoint frequent YouTube "personalities" as the most knowledgeable. I see no correlation between ego (or the gift of gab), and finding the chest.
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 2:45:26 GMT -5
Being devil's advocate - what is the point of posting on forums then?
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 2:47:09 GMT -5
The computer jocks are not quite the same model of collaborative problem solving. Seems doubtful a computer could identify the possible wordplay which might be involved too.
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Post by ironwill on Aug 9, 2019 3:00:38 GMT -5
A little thought experiment - (not sure how useful it is): Imagine we got the 5 or 6 'best' treasure hunters worldwide in a room and said 'ok folks, empty your pockets of all your thoughts and solutions, observations etc and solve this thing'. Would they ever come to an agreed answer? Success by committee? No. There's already been a band of nerdy computer jocks (from MIT, I seem to recall) who tried to program a computer to come up with the correct solution. Didn't work. That's because a computer lacks the one thing you need for this treasure hunt....imagination.
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 3:04:47 GMT -5
Good point - maybe we need very imaginative people in our imaginary 'council'. Children?
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 3:51:28 GMT -5
People wondering what the heck this thread is all about - google the '6 thinking hats'.
You will find an awful lot of black hat (critical reasoning) thinking on forums, and that is absolutely necessary. However, if you are solely stuck in that mode, where is your creative imaginative thinking (e.g. this thread)? Or your gut feel?
Imagination is more important than knowlege (sic).
I am not proposing to actually assemble the Avengers, however it might be useful to occasionally divert from black hat thinking to look at the situation from afar. As such, you can have anyone you like in your imaginary council - Einstein, Jesus, a dragon, an alien, a sentient atom, Fenn himself (although he can't just tell you the answers, obv.), whatever.
So far we might have: A very successful treasure hunt solver. A very creative/imaginitive person. A creative problem solver.
When you're happy with your list, you can then ask yourself "am I spending enough time looking at the poem through these useful perspectives".
Again, just a thought.
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Post by chesttroll on Aug 9, 2019 4:17:25 GMT -5
Davebakedpotato, your going to need to have botg at some point. It would be wise to include an individual who has experience in the Rocky mountains.
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 4:24:04 GMT -5
Davebakedpotato, your going to need to have botg at some point. It would be wise to include an individual who has experience in the Rocky mountains. Agreed
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Post by davebakedpotato on Aug 9, 2019 4:27:58 GMT -5
Davebakedpotato, your going to need to have botg at some point. It would be wise to include an individual who has experience in the Rocky mountains. If you're still doubting the usefulness of the idea - how many people's safety would have been improved by looking at their solution through the eyes of an experienced Rocky Mountains explorer. Extremely sobering.
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Post by kaotkbliss on Aug 9, 2019 5:44:55 GMT -5
hmmm... Harrison Ford Tom Hanks Nicholas Cage
not sure if I need 2 more or not LOL
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Post by goldilocks on Aug 9, 2019 12:20:37 GMT -5
There's already been a band of nerdy computer jocks (from MIT, I seem to recall) who tried to program a computer to come up with the correct solution. Didn't work. The team should be diverse so the band of nerdy computer jocks were at a disadvantage from the start. A group of individuals with no preconceived notions as Jenny said, a completely Fenn-neutral group (the way jurors are chosen), would be ideal, composed of right brain and left brain thinkers, a fisherman, a pilot, a poet, an archeologist, an artist, a businessman, an entrepreneur, a dreamer. Sounds like a cast for a movie or tv show to me!
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