The Risk-Reward Ratio of Doing Puzzles
Doing jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, or competing in any board game for that matter, has never been my thing. I cannot explain why except that I have a short attention span and bore easily. Perhaps it is merely a fear factor and to be precise, a fear of failure.
Whatever the reasoning, the thought of doing a puzzle terrifies me. However, when I received a 1000-piece puzzle as a Christmas gift from my stepson Chris Lauber, I knew that fear needed to be put aside. The puzzle was a whimsical scene of famous Paris monuments painted in cheerful pastel colors. As I hadn’t done a puzzle since I was a child, I hesitated to start it. Then, I figured that this might be as close to Paris as I was going to get for a while given travel restrictions and the need for double Covid-19 vaccinations.
Taking the first steps
As luck would have it, I had been to my friend Natasha Kavanagh’s apartment earlier in the week and noticed that she had just started a puzzle. Natasha had completed the border of the puzzle having found all the flat edged pieces. Then she had sorted everything else by color using a six-tray puzzle sorter (produced by Springbok) which stacked and could also be stored.
Armed with this how-to-begin knowledge, I decided to take the plunge. “How hard could it be?” I wondered. After finally finishing the outline of my Paris puzzle late one morning, and feeling immensely proud of myself, I spent another two grueling hours to complete the image of Notre Dame! What an amateur I was. This was not going to be easy. And, what a commitment of time.
The call for help
Discouraged, I walked away from the puzzle for several days. Then I thought perhaps words of advice and encouragement from pals who love doing puzzles might help return me to the task. After all, I couldn’t keep the puzzle on my dining room table indefinitely.
First, my Goddaughter, Zoe Carter, told me she had received an ugly sweater puzzle for Christmas. Her whole family worked on it with her until they completed the project at 11 PM one evening. Zoe commiserated with me recalling what it is like to be a novice puzzler. She cheered me on. “It is exciting to see the progress you have made over time. However, do not be hard on yourself if you only found one piece that fits in a day. Progress can be both big and small. There is something rewarding about finding a piece that fits!” “A whole day to find one piece?” I thought to myself in horror.
So, if I were to re-commit to this long, tedious process, more reasons for doing so would be needed. Natasha told me she and her boyfriend Lou loved doing puzzles together because they were “absorbing, calming and collaborative.” She also added that it was one of the few occasions when Lou, her talkative mate, was quiet.
The cons of collaboration
My sister-in-law MaryAnn Lauber, an advent puzzle fan since early childhood, was of a different opinion about the advantages of a team approach. She warned me that having someone help could be a hindrance especially if they lacked a “sense of perception and were trying to join pieces which were obviously not a match.”
I decided to go it alone. Put I still needed more convincing to motivate a return to the project. Being a businesswoman at heart, I considered assessing the risk-reward ratio of the task ahead. That most likely would do the trick.
What the experts say
Brain scientists and doctors tell us puzzles power our brains. According to them, here are some of the rewards:
1. Puzzles target both hemispheres in your brain, the left side which controls analytical thinking and the right side, which controls creativity.
2. They improve short-term memory as you need to remember shapes, sizes, and colors in order to visualize where the pieces will fit.
3. They improve your ability to solve problems and think critically as you work through trial and error to get the individual pieces to “snap in” correctly.
4. They improve your visual and spatial reasoning. (This could turn into a benefit when packing for my next trip to Paris!)
5. They help regulate your memory and concentration. They also improve your mood through an increased production of dopamine. This explains that feeling of euphoria when you find the right piece. You know, the thrill of the “I got one!” moment.
6. Finally, they lower your stress level. Doing puzzles allows the brain to tune out other distractions and almost creates a Zen-like meditative state.
What the people say
There are even more tangible rewards according to my puzzle-playing pals.
Sneh Patel, a PhD in Anthropology, said “The best thing about puzzles is that they are solvable! While it might take some time, you can always finish them and feel a sense of accomplishment.” Then Sneh added “A great advantage of a puzzle is you can do them repeatedly and still have fun.”
And the risks?
But what about the risks? Sneh, pointed out that “if you don't take a break from a puzzle, you can strain your eyes and back” and the dust which you sometimes find on the pieces can cause sneezing.”
According to videographer Jodi Daley, another serious risk is that puzzles can be enormous time-eaters. “Jigsaw puzzles pull you into their world. They don't care about yours. They don't care about the time commitment, the intermittent feeling of being overwhelmed or the complete obsession one can feel when he or she is ‘on a roll.’"
The puzzle as a siren
I can identify with Jodi’s hesitation. Before going to bed one evening, I thought I’d give my Paris scene just ten more minutes. That was at 9:30 PM. I went down a rabbit hole trying to complete Sacre Coeur, the incredibly ugly Cathedral atop a hill in Montmartre. It wasn’t until 1:30 AM that I snapped in the final finial on the church spire!
In explaining my frustrations to Jodi, she empathized for a moment then divulged how she, as I, had accidentally walked into the puzzle trap. “My experience with puzzles came from a rather strange angle. A friend of mine and I loved ‘KING TUT’ and so, as a gift, I put together, lacquered, and framed a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of King Tutankhamun. This was the early 1990s. I have never endeavored such a complicated puzzle since then for one rather practical reason: It consumed me. I found myself walking to and from the table with the inability to pass without searching for at least ten pieces.”
Taming the puzzle beast
Jodi has since learned how to tame the beast. “I do simpler puzzles now, mostly electronic on my iPad or phone. You can tailor the difficulty to the wait time on the plane or the few minutes you have between appointments. The pieces respond to being moved into place and electronically latch onto each other or hop back to the pile if your guess is incorrect. And the big benefit...they're easy to walk away from. They don't chide you from their table in the corner. They don't consume you.”
Puzzle as connectors
Puzzles do, however, consume the sisters in the Patel family and willingly so. Sneh’s older sister, Chandni, recounted how puzzles function as a means to keep her family connected even though all three sisters live in different cities. As she tells it, “Two out of the three Patel sisters actually like puzzles. My sister Aarika, who runs a spice business, HATES them. When she was little, she would steal pieces and hide them to drive us nuts. Now that she's older, she actually just finds really hard ones and sends them to us.” When Aarika recently sent an incredibly difficult puzzle to Chandni, she recounted that she had refused to finish it and instead mailed it to her other sister Sneh. “Sneh finished it - so then I made her send it back to me so I could try again because we are that competitive.”
The evil twins
Lou Aldort, Natashi’s gregarious mate, told an amusing story about the risk-reward of doing puzzles. “Each summer we used to take a family beach vacation with all three generations together in the same house. We always took puzzles along with us and each member of the family would at times sit and add a few pieces. Finally, after completing a large, complex puzzle we sat down to have a drink. We told the two-year-old twins not to touch the puzzle.” That must have ignited the toddlers’ curiosity. While the adults were distracted with their cocktails, the little ones set their sights on destroying the puzzle throwing all the pieces to the floor.
My reaction to Lou’s story of the twins’ conspiracy was one of shock. All that work destroyed. When I asked if the twins were punished, he laughed and responded, “Marsha, these were practically babies, far too young to harshly reprimand.”
All I can say is my first puzzle experience in half a century was not completely pleasurable other than a periodic hit of dopamine. When I finally built out Paris —which took a good ten days—I kept the puzzle out on display like a trophy. Then, I decided to get rid of it. It was too stressful to have around. Throughout the process, I kept hearing the nagging question in my head: “What if the puzzle manufacturer forgot a piece?” It was not until I completed the incredibly difficult blue sky and snapped the last piece of a billowing cloud into place that I could relax and revel in my accomplishment.
Puzzle Paranoia ?
Let’s be honest. While I recognized the risk-reward ratio was in favor of doing puzzles, and, yes, it did give my brain a serious mental workout, I felt I needed a breather. In fact, I needed a long breather before attempting the next one.
I looked around for a good home for my Paris puzzle. When my fellow Italian language studentessa, Joan Ross, mentioned she used to do puzzles, a plan was hatched. I invited her to dinner. While I washed the dishes, Joan’s job was to pull the puzzle apart and put the 1000-pieces back into its box. As she left, I handed the box to her as a parting gift with a mischievous grin plastered on my face. Later I leaned the protocol of “serious puzzlers” (meaning courteous puzzlers) was to separate out the boarder pieces and place them in a separate bag before passing on the puzzle to someone else. So much to learn in this complex world of puzzles.
One thing I do know is that it will take another 50 years before I am ready for the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship. But don’t let that discourage you serious puzzle mavens. The next competition is in Valladolid, Spain this fall in 2021. Get your passport and puzzle sorters ready!