TEP Talk: The Swiftest Shapeshifters Race Against the Stopwatch
If you’re like any of our members at Tech Square ATL (TSQATL) Social Club, you probably can’t resist the urge to solve an ambiguous visual challenge when it crosses your path. In honor of National Puzzle Day last week, we sought out to see who among our puzzle-proficient members at Technology Enterprise Park (TEP) was the swiftest puzzle solver.
Last Thursday afternoon, we challenged our members at TEP to create a shape shown on a card using only L-shaped blocks. The timer started as soon as the player shifted a block towards another to get to the target shape.
Out of twelve challengers, the swiftest shapeshifter clocked in with an accurately constructed shape at 17.25 seconds. A majority of the shapeshifters were able to accurately create the shape between 31 to 60 seconds.
SHAPESHIFTING PUZZLE DURATIONS
Of the challengers, two tapped out from completing the shape under the urgency of the ticking stopwatch — which, to their merit, adds an extra element of pressure to one’s reflexes and mental agility! But whether it’s a chemistry quiz, word problem, or a business challenge, our members do not shy away from ambiguity. In fact, they have the tendency to lean in and explore these ambiguities with genuine curiosity. This innate need to figure things out and leave no stone unturned (or shifted) until breakthroughs happen is a shared characteristic that many of our community members possess. And that’s what makes everyday exciting when you work alongside the top technologists, engineers, designers, and problem solvers at the heart of Atlanta’s tech scene.
Do you have a favorite type of puzzle? Let us know in the comments below.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1949, two Harvard psychologists published a study that unmasked the human mind’s natural aversion to ambiguity when it is under pressure. The experiment was conducted by asking observants to describe what they saw after showing them reverse-colored playing cards (red spades, black hearts) for an instant. 57 percent of participants reacted with frustration from the ambiguity and the time crunch.