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Solution to Don's Amazing Puzzle

Thursday, August 23, 2007 by Dave Winer.

There are six F's in the sentencePermalink to this paragraph

There is no catch. Permalink to this paragraph

I found three. I went back and counted and recounted, and I was sure there were just three. So I wrote a script to see what was going on. It said there are six! Mystifying. Permalink to this paragraph

Here's a screen shot of the script. Permalink to this paragraph

I first ran it in DaveNet in 1997. It's usually fun. Only two people I knew back then got it right without any coaching. My uncle and Scott Rosenberg. Scott said his trick was to read the sentence backwards, something he learned as an editor at Salon. My uncle was an engineer at heart and loved puzzles. He just did what the puzzle told him to do, literally. Most people, myself included, don't. That's why it's an amazing puzzle. It teaches us about our ability to see what's right before our eyes. Don't feel bad if you got it wrong, you have a lot of company.  Permalink to this paragraph



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Last update: 8/23/07; 4:33:33 PM Pacific. "It's even worse than it appears."

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