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I'm a slowpoke
2012.08.30. 0:44
I am very slow apparently. Puzzle after puzzle, my solving time is typically twice as long as average. I can think of three reasons why I'm so slow.

First, I'm multitasking. I'm usually doing the puzzle while I'm cooking or reading my email. I don't really focus on the puzzle.

Second, I find it annoying how often I have to click on a color. I'll be filling in some green. I click on red and go to add red but the cursor is still adding green. So I click on red again but the cursor is still adding green. So I click on red again, this time harder, and the cursor is still adding green. I click on red again and again and accidentally double click opening the color menu. But at least now the cursor is finally adding red. Now I just need to remember where all I accidentally added green so I can make sure to replace it with red. This is time consuming.

Third, I suspect that the average time is misleading. I suspect that many people solve the puzzle a second time so they can get a better time and these cheaters are throwing the average time off.

Are there errors in what I'm thinking? Are there other reasons why my time might be about twice the average?

Thank you.

RE: I'm a slowpoke
2012.08.30. 4:23 válaszként erre: bejjinks.
The required double/triple/xxxple clicking to change the color that is being used I have noticed as well. I have not used the scientific method enough to deduce the cause since it happened enough for me to notice it but not enough for me to worry about it. From what I remember it happened during G/T matches. Take some time to test out the interface and see what the real issue is (misclicking due to mouse, impatience, or accuracy of mouse pointer).

Doing other things while puzzling will practically never allow you to beat the mid time. It is not an average time. A puzzle will still have a mid time of 5 minutes if, say, one person leaves the window open, comes back 5 hours later, and solves it w/o opening a new window. The mid-time will not change because it is not an average. If enough people did the same thing and surpasses the number of people who've solved the puzzle, then the mid-time may eventually change to 5 hours but this kind of behavior of puzzle solvers would be purely hypothetical.

It takes time to becoming a good puzzler. Assumptive guessing, which is a predictive type of solving one can do when used to an author's puzzles, will always be faster than logical deduction of the puzzle's clues' placements, step-by-step. Not many of the community do this as it is much more risky and I would say less brain-stimulating.

Once a person solves a puzzle for the first time, that time cannot be changed with a second solving. Even if one could solve the puzzle a second time, I find it shouldn't be called cheating. Anyone could easily solve a puzzle up to it's few last steps, open a new window, and just look at every thing in the old window so one can get an extremely low time. But why do this? It's just cheating yourself and doesn't affect the mid-time anyway. And you would probably get caught.

My advice to you is when you have the time to play a puzzle, do so from other distractions. This site is best when you aren't distracted with other chores. You'll then see an improvement in your speed with more concentration. Happy solving. 

RE: I'm a slowpoke
2013.10.01. 5:29 válaszként erre: bejjinks.
I'm a slowpoke too.  I prefer to go slow and steady and avoid mistakes. I often do puzzles during downtime at work so I can't always give 100% of my attention.  I learned to stop comparing myself directly to the mid-time.  Rather, I find myself okay if I am within 25% or so.  Of course that can be greatly different on a 2 minute time but I tend to like the longer ones.
