cheater

[kitchenwitch]

Huh, interesting. I thought the super fast solvers were people who have played these puzzles so often, they recognized the puzzle the moment they saw it.

It would indeed be easy to cheat at a game like this, since it's only a substitution cipher... but why? What sense of accomplishment does a cheater get? It's not like Puzzle Baron is handing out cash prizes! The real reward is being able to say you survived another Jack Handey quote.

[LLapp]

How do people get puzzles done in under 10 seconds? I cant even type that fast never mind figure out the cypher first

The answer is PRACTICE. By which I mean solving cryptograms for more hours, through months and years on end, than any rational person with a life would care to admit. I first found this site in 2014, and it took me ten years, with the help of one pandemic year, to get my average solving time consistently under 30 seconds -- which means that I do solve some of them in under 10 seconds. I couldn't cheat if you spelled out the cheat code for me in large print. I'm 68 years old with a decent internet connection, 60 wpm touch typing, and no special computer skills.

The auto-fill function on this site makes a huge difference in speed, since you rarely have to type more than about 19 keystrokes per puzzle.

[cc_frazer]

The answer is PRACTICE. By which I mean solving cryptograms for more hours, through months and years on end, than any rational person with a life would care to admit. I first found this site in 2014, and it took me ten years, with the help of one pandemic year, to get my average solving time consistently under 30 seconds -- which means that I do solve some of them in under 10 seconds. I couldn't cheat if you spelled out the cheat code for me in large print. I'm 68 years old with a decent internet connection, 60 wpm touch typing, and no special computer skills.

The auto-fill function on this site makes a huge difference in speed, since you rarely have to type more than about 19 keystrokes per puzzle.

Is it letter and word pattern recognition or recognises the quotes that speeds people up so much. Like are people solving puzzles or just recognizing the quote to do them so quickly

[LLapp]

Is it letter and word pattern recognition or recognises the quotes that speeds people up so much. Like are people solving puzzles or just recognizing the quote to do them so quickly

Mostly it's the pattern recognition, though there are a handful of quotes that pop up so often that you start to recognize them when they do. (The most famous of which is by Bob Hope and it starts, "A bank is a place... .") But whole-quote recognition is the exception. Most of us actually do not remember quotes at all, to the point where we're sure it's the first time we've ever seen it, only to find that we've solved it multiple times before and even left comments. Not only that, but many of us take longer on the subsequent solves than we did on the first try.

So it's all about pattern recognition, and that's where practice comes in. With practice, you also get a feel for clues, such as when the author of the quote cues you to look for certain words in the quote (for example, in any Gene Perret quote, look for "grandchildren"). And some authors write with a distinctive cadence that you get a feel for -- e.g., Jack Handey with his childish syntax, George Elliot with her dense word choices, and Alexander Pope with his fine meter and contorted wording. Punctuation also gives clues -- especially the comma followed by a 3-letter word, which is nearly always either "and" or "but" (you can usually tell the difference by the letter frequencies).

There are several forum topics that offer good clues for solving. Also, there's an excellent tutorial you can find in a text link on the Cryptograms home page.

[cc_frazer]

Thanks for the tips. I have most of the tutorial in a spreadsheet for quick reference.