I’ve been on a bit of a sudoku binge the last couple of weeks. There’s something so pure and comforting about doing something that’s just hard enough to take your mind off the prevailing problem you are facing. While I was doing a puzzle the other day, I thought how much sudoku has taught me about life in general.
There’s been so many puzzles where I make a mistake halfway through and only catch it about 5 minutes later. Trying to untangle this mess seems impossible. So of course I had to try doing it. After spending more time trying to unravel my mess than I did making it, I resigned to the fact that maybe it’s best just to move along. I’m not saying to give up altogether. If you’re using a pen and paper, you can recreate the puzzle on a new piece of paper. On a computer puzzle, the reset button looks oh so inviting. My analogy focuses purely on the irreversibility of a paper puzzle. The puzzle you failed at is simply not going to be translated to a new sheet of paper. In truth, that failure burns at you and starting it over just seems to suck the joy out of it.
In life, we can’t make the decision sometimes to just move along, give up on something, or just start over. This is where sudoku has taught me some patience. My success rate keeps getting better as I practice more. I keep making mistakes and that’s ok, but as long as I’m learning all the time from these mistakes I feel a sense of accomplishment. Its focus on attention to detail has taught me to take that extra second to check my work, to make sure about making the right move. And you know what happens, I still make mistakes. So, I’m guessing practice doesn’t make perfect, only better. This is just something that I’ve started to make peace with.
It’s been fun doing something like sudoku that relaxes the brain and doesn’t need too much thinking. It has simple rules and is easily accessible across a wide array of ages. You just need perseverance and attention to detail. In truth, just perseverance can get you through it (although it’ll take you a crazy amount of time). I know because I wrote a program that can solve sudoku pretty easily by just iterating over the grid until the grid is complete. This fact used to dishearten me (a computer can solve this in less than a second). Now I feel a sense of pride when I solve puzzles quicker and with fewer mistakes. Every so often it’s about the journey, not the destination.
