Giving Up vs Starting Over

Pedro is really into games and puzzles. He and his dad work the New York Times Spelling Bee, a game where they give you seven letters with one central letter and you have to see how many words you can make from those letters. Pedro introduced me to several kinds of Wordle puzzles, one where you solve for sixteen words at the same time. (See www.sedecordle.com)

My favorite puzzle in the New York Times is the Crytogram where you have to decipher the words. Since the pandemic started, the Cryptogram is in the Tuesday and Thursday paper. Every now and then, Pedro and I will work on one together.

This week, both the Tuesday and Thursday puzzles kicked my butt.

Solving the cryptogram is a zen like experience. Normally, once I get a word or two, I can solve the whole thing. The words come to me from another part of my brain, and I am in the flow. It is a beautiful thing. On rare occasions, I have to sneak a hint the next day when the answers are published. 

This time I was befuddled. Here is the puzzle:

ZCS GNVV FVGFZK KUFZ ZCSBL NH ZCS LPU POPEMNKP, PFU XECXPEVZ FBJ VNP FRCSU ZCSE FLP.

Here is how I solve the puzzle typically:

1. Look for the one letter words, and see if "A" or "I" fits better in the puzzle.
2. Are there apostrophes? The letters following an apostrophe are usually t, s, l, re, or ve.
3. See if you can make sense of the two letter words. 
4. Look at the pattern of the words in the sentence. Which words could be "the" or "and"?

I am not sure how else to describe how I solve the puzzle. I read (part of) The Code Book by Simon Singh and I must have picked up a few pointers there. I have done a lot these, and practice helps, too.

In the puzzle above, I saw the pattern in the words ZCS, ZCSBL and ZCSE. I figured this was The, Their, and either Then, Them or They. 

I was wrong, but man I kept trying to get those words to fit! I kept trying and trying and trying. I was stuck. When I looked at the answers the next day, I saw that it something else.

I told Pedro, "Sometimes when you are working on these puzzles and you have a pattern in mind that doesn't work, you need to give up and erase everything you have."

"You don't mean 'give up.' You mean 'start over,'" he said. 

Wow. There is a difference in thought pattern. How often have a banged my head against the wall hoping and praying things outside of my control would change? Stopping banging my head against the wall isn't giving up. It means have the space to start over and try something new.