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Puzzles with no insight required
I'm going to post some puzzles as a test of a category of puzzle that does not require finding an insight, but just following steps. If solving a puzzle that requires an insight is like painting, the type proposed here would be like colouring in, or painting by numbers. I can imagine there being some demand for such puzzles, but I can also imagine them being frustrating to people seeking the challenge of finding an insight, so they would need to be clearly labelled to avoid wasting anyone's time.
In this Meta post I'm seeking answers to 2 questions:
- Would you like to see this kind of puzzle in this community? This is not about whether you personally would be likely to post or solve such puzzles, but whether you think they should be on topic here.
- If we allow such puzzles, what name should their tag have, so that they are easily distinguishable from puzzles that require insight?
I'm not sure if it's possible to draw a clear line between puzzles that require insight and puzzles that do not, so I'm posting extreme examples which definitely require no insight, to start a discussion about whether they are welcome and whether they can be separated.
Examples
These give an idea of what I'm trying to describe. Please suggest any improvements to how this category of puzzles should be described, or any reasons it should be more than one category of puzzles.
2 answers
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I looked at all three puzzles and I think they are all fine here.
Different people have different skill sets and interests so I think that these puzzles will appeal to some but not all people here.
And that’s fine!
I don’t think these types of puzzles need their own tag. And they certainly don’t need a tag like “Straightforward” because that would be discouraging for a potential solver if they don’t find it straightforward.
If a problem can be solved simply by following a set of given directions, then it's not a puzzle. Therefore, such non-puzzles don't belong on the Puzzles site.
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