ionetics

Unreliable and possibly off-topic

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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Scorelines

Latest scores on Independent's sudoku:

Level Date Time Comments
Quick 27/9/05 17 mins
Quick 28/9/05 26 mins ~8 min interruption,
Advanced 27/9/05 23 mins
Advanced 28/9/05 21 mins ~6 min interruption, getting tipsy

It's been interesting to spectate on how I developed tricks to solve these. There was a pretty steep learning curve over 2 weeks or so. I realised the importance of logical deduction and induction from the start, but continued to make logical errors in the solution around 50% of the time. But error rate then dropped off to a current plateau at ~10% incorrect solutions. With practise, the initially naive, best-guess, intuitive style of completion has been replaced by a gradual dawning awareness and operationalisation of the logical, cognitive processes in cross-checking potential solutions. The mechanical aspects of the process, now that I seem to have reached a limit on technique, have somewhat taken the gamble and the fun out of it, to be honest. I've had a go at the monstrously fierce sudokus which use up to 5 letters as well as the conventional sudoku lexicon of 9 digits, but they make my brain ache.