A.J. Jacobs on Solving Life's Puzzles

EconTalk

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2022

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How much of life can be solved by algorithms, and how much just can't be solved? Listen as A.J. Jacobs, author of The Puzzler, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the lessons he learned from solving every kind of puzzle imaginable, including the biggest stumper of all: what it really means to be a human being.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.8	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:12.7	Institution.
0:13.7	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links down
0:18.6	the information related to today's conversation.
0:21.4	You'll also find our archives, but every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:30.3	We'd love to hear from you.
0:37.8	Today is May 16, 2022 and my guest is author AJ Jacobs.
0:43.0	He was last year in November of 2018 talking about his book, Thanks a Thousand.
0:48.1	His latest book is The Puzzler.
0:50.8	One man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever.
0:54.5	And crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life.
0:57.5	AJ, welcome to econtalk.
0:59.6	I am delighted to be back.
1:02.2	Now early in the book, you talk about crossword puzzles, which is a puzzle a lot of us have
1:07.8	had some access to.
1:09.4	Do you do the New York Times puzzle every day?
1:13.0	I do.
1:14.0	I do.
1:15.0	I'm a fan.
1:16.0	Even Monday?
	...

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