How Does The Devil Keep Doing This?

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Today's puzzle is the new one from Phistomefel. Yes, the moment we saw it we knew we wouldn't be able to resist it for long! It's called Spoons and you can play it at the link below.
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Rules:
Normal Sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end.
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▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@deerel]

The feeling you get when you get angry at Simon for not seeing what is so obvious to you, and you later realize you were wrogn.

[@realtylerdb]

A daily occurrence...

[@Xerox594]

I know this feeling so well

[@Zilvaras2]

I understood that wrogn reference.

[@ellaser93]

By any chance, did it involve column 5?

[@sarahnash7174]

Haha been there done that!

[@abigail5762]

“You guys have probably solved this already” He has way too much faith in me

[@philm5872]

Mark may like his pencil marks..but how Simon fails to scan up and down after placing a digit still baffles me!

[@rungus24]

I wonder about this sort of thing, just because my brain is like that: I think, for me at least, it's because I understand so little of the logic that Mark and Simon use to solve these puzzles, that it becomes easier for me to notice the few bits of logic that I do understand, like scanning up and down when they're already thinking about something else. Also, if they are playing to an audience of thousands, then it's almost a probabilistic certainty that you will be one of the hundred, say, who notice some particular instance of easy logic, but you might actually fail to notice the same amount of other instances of it as they do, if that makes sense. And lastly, they're expending some mental energy on talking to the camera, which will take something of a toll on their ability to quickly solve, I expect. But yes, those times when I do see something that they don't still has me saying so out loud sometimes.

[@ClawedAsh]

Part of it is that Simon is used to scanning while leaned back in his chair, not the more hunched over scanning he has to do during videos

[@topilinkala1594]

I'd say it's because it not easy to do three things at the same time: Think what to do, describe verbally what you are going to do and do it. So I'm not giving him hard time on that. But the way he says in the end: "That's THE way to solve..." (emphasis by me) is a blatant lie and I call him for that. He rarely does it these days but once again on this video he did.

[@serebix3685]

I love that Simon is a being of pure logic but his scanning on the other hand is... questionable at best sometimes :D

[@victorfinberg8595]

It's a feature, not a bug. Simon is using an advanced scanning mode that has difficulty finding basic results, because it focuses on complex effects. Analogy: motion detection. If you set the sensitivity of your system to high, it can detect the slightest breath of air. But if you don't want to record every leaf that drifts by the field of view, and you use a lower sensitivity, you may not detect large slow-moving objects.

[@GeraSanz]

No is not, its not the same to focus 100% into solving a problem and having to talk and keep comenting and explaining

[@DennisJosefsson]

It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife to pry the puzzle open.

[@CJVale]

How big is your sink?

[@DennisJosefsson]

@@CJVale Much larger audience than what Ed Byrne had, we definitely have more than 10,000 spoons between us.

[@dmmax18]

Phistomefel is my personal hero.

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

Or he's the villain who torments us every few days. 🤔🤣

[@Tombsar]

@@JohnADoe-pg1qk It's something of a love-hate relationship.

[@xarmanhsh2981]

What country he is from?

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

Rules: 2:45 Let's get cracking: 3:20

[@Ale-uf7id]

More thumbs up for this guy!

[@EBattousai]

12:00 "Oh, bobbins"

[@briannelson605]

I love how Simon makes fun of Mark's pencil marking of thermos

[@PH34RB]

To be fair, this is one puzzle where it was clear the full marking was just visual pollution. I always do it, but refrained on this one, and finished in 25. It's like Phistomephel tailor-made it for Simon :)

[@andrewsparkes8829]

@@PH34RB I dunno; the full marking here might have actually spurred the "Mark's Harry Potter one" epiphany sooner due to the visualisation of it, for Simon, at least! You're right for anyone who hasn't done that puzzle before in general that it's visual pollution, and would definitely be for the actual 'solve' (i.e. once the epiphany happened he could delete them), but seeing the possible totals descend along the thermos may have saved 5-10 minutes of time!

[@davidh.4944]

I know it's all good fun, but it is a bit unfair to Mark. Even he doesn't immediately attack short thermos like this, only longer ones that might expose something interesting.

[@Pigeon0fDoom]

And then, at 32:59 they all are Mark-ed

[@victorfinberg8595]

You are right, and I'm sure Simon knows this, and is just having some fun. Objectively speaking, what Mark does with thermometers is to start by filling in the candidates on those thermometers where he knows from experience and his understanding of his abilities that the process will produce results in short order. Long ones: definitely Short ones: no Medium ones: maybe

[@kdas7590]

I just solved my first Phistomefel puzzle ever! They are usually way too tough for me. Today is a good day

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

Me too!

[@tylerowens]

This was my first Phistomefel solve all on my own (I've been able to finish one or two others after Simon's start before) and it was an absolutely gorgeous puzzle.

[@JeKKie811]

Thank you Simon for only half-butchering our names ;) Peter and Jessie

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Sorry!!!!

[@JeKKie811]

Haha no problem! Having really Dutch names can be very difficult outside NL

[@voorth]

@@JeKKie811 To be fair, they made good progress in pronouncing "Aad van de Wetering" and "Joke van Veenendaal". Next challenge: pronounce "Chiel" correctly 😀

[@JeKKie811]

@@voorth you are asking too much, my friend

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

@@JeKKie811 ... and ours is such a beautifully melodious language. I mean, what is there not to love about words like schatteboutje?

[@siyuanhuo7301]

Simon: "No! It's still not resolved!" Me: *looks down from the 8 in column 9 fixing the column 9 lower thermo and wanting to shout at him*

[@pboss2178]

Me two minutes earlier: There`s a 2 in column 7. Please scan to the bottom of the grid. :)

[@artursruseckis4242]

or the "unresolved" box 5 with two consecutive 5s as minimal value on thermo

[@kayingham3528]

There’s something simultaneously stressful and peaceful about knowing that Simon *is* eventually going to get it, and I only have to sit back watch the long long road of how he gets there

[@Slimdante]

Yeah, he put that 2 in and then never used it. I was quietly fuming but also wondering "what round about way is he going to go about avoiding using that?" as he seems to always do when I spot a clue.

[@blacklion79]

9 in row 9 was obvious as soon as x-wings had been filled up!

[@Cloiss_]

There are some really interesting patterns in this grid. If you allow "consecutive" to wrap around and include the sets 891 and 912, you can find 3-cell regions containing "consecutive" digits make up the entire grid in a very nice pattern as a result of the pattern of the thermos

[@stevieinselby]

Yes, my immediate thought before I even started to fill the puzzle was that all the vertical thermos _must_ have three consecutive digits ... surprised that Simon jumped into pencil-marking before making that deduction 😉

[@susanne5803]

Yes. After pencilling the 1289s in the spaces between the vertical thermos I thought about the possible order of digits. Since there had to be one thermos with a 7 in the head it needed an 8 and 9 to follow. I can deduce that the vertical thermos all need to be consecutives from that.

[@sarahjones1627]

Yeyyyy... Thermo Sudoku from Phistomefel 😁

[@bristolrovers27]

Phistomafel is yet again living up to his reputation, beautiful puzzle Simon seems stumped by the concept of looking up and down rows and columns he’s just put a digit in but can spot some obscure chain of 5 to come up with the same answer !!! Great video if occasionally perplexing

[@pboss2178]

Sometimes I feel like he can only look sideways.

[@andrewness]

He gets very excited and sometimes overlooks the simpler things because he has spotted something clever.

[@DougBolden]

Watching this channel in a bar/pub is now on a bucket list of mine, because I feel like screaming "SCAN DOWN THE COLUMNS!" at the screen would be more fun with a pint in my hands (sure, I could do such at home, but that loses some charm). As always, an entertaining time watching Simon having a go at the devil's handiwork. Also, my daughter says she likes it when you use lots of colors. It's her favorite part (she is four, mind).

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

Are nerd bars a thing?

[@DougBolden]

@@elizabethgrosvenor153 There are a couple of retro game/arcade bars near here, and I've seen some with a tabletop-game focus...so, sudoku/crossword-nerd bars could possibly exist.

[@opstall]

"I've seen this before..." -- yep, last puzzle of the thermo app.

[@nathandts3401]

Thought so.

[@hansdebruin1908]

Yep finished that one a day before this video. Five five long parallel thermos

[@brodatybrutal]

Loved that one! I think it's equally elegant to this Devil's work. ;)

[@Afterthoughtbtw]

That felt like an immensely elegant puzzle. How the devil _does_ he do it?!

[@Qril]

Now someone can make a similarly-inspired one with six 4-thermoes!

[@KeithGrant]

After the 456 triple in column 4, Simon followed through on the result in column 5, but completely ignored its effect on column 3. it immediately locks the two vertical thermos as 4-5-6 and 7-8-9

[@StoicGoat.]

I was stuck shortly after this in the puzzle because I did not see the sixes Simon found. At the time, I stared at column 3 for a while, feeling like that was the next spot, but couldn't spot this logic. Nice catch.

[@Happyjew666]

I feel good when I'm able to complete a CtC puzzle. I feel better when it is under 30 minutes. I cannot describe the feeling of solving a Phistomefel puzzle in under 30 minutes (but it is good).

[@diametheuslambda]

I remember first figuring what n parallel thermos of 10-n length imply from a Bastien Vial-​Jaime sudoku in his blog about a decade ago. The trick is pretty neatly used here.

[@seanmcdonough2683]

Did this the other day when it came out and it was surprisingly approachable for Phistomofel. Thought it was more of a Simon puzzle, but really was hoping to see Mark have his fun with thermos.

[@kodra22]

This is a 3 star puzzle, but a 1 star on the Phistomephel difficulty scale

[@CauchyIntegralFormula]

45 minutes flat. Really good! I love how much I end up figuring out just from all those spoons!

[@Tombsar]

Did it in about half an hour, including a restart because I made a mistake (not sure where) ten minutes in. Very good puzzle. I wouldn't have had a clue had I not previously done the similar puzzle in your Thermo Sudoku app!

[@mosyszlak]

Might be the easiest Phistomefel puzzle for me ever! I think I will put that in my resume: I did a Phistomefel in less than 20 mins!

[@ChrisHendricks]

My fave too.

[@drewthompson2288]

Long time subscriber, first time commenter here. This may be the first Phistomefel puzzle I have solved on my own before watching the video solve. Clocked in at just under 40 minutes and used logic the whole way. I don't think I would have ever got a digit before discovering this channel. Thank you Simon and Mark! Love the channel, can't wait for the book, now on to the next one. Let's get cracking!

[@steveunderwood3683]

That's an interesting one. The beginning steps are obvious. Its the bit in the middle that gets sticky.

[@PathOfShrines]

Just wow. Amazing logic here. 59:55; I should've puzzled out the right columns earlier.

[@willie_brydon]

at 14:00 Simon mentions seeing this type of logic before, I think it's one of the puzzles from the thermo sudoku app. It had a very similar type of logic that forced the digits of a number of parallel thermos to be consecutive, it was probably one of my favourite ones to solve!

[@erinasnow]

I did it! I went wrong twice, but three times is the charm. Took me a lot longer than I wanted, but I did it!

[@skaisplit3656]

today. today is the day, after years of watching ctc that i looked at a puzzle and instantly understood the logic of it. 7 thermometers occupying the same 3 rows means the combination of bulb'd digits is 1-7, 2-8, 3-9 giving the missing digits of the rows and columns. this channel is making me smarter by the day.

[@balkthor]

“Now we have to think...” Ho boy, now I’m in trouble.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

Another great puzzle and a great solve. They keep on coming, those gems. The striking thing about this solve path is that the spilling over of the thermos from, say, box 3 to box 6 restricts the thermos that can co-exist in box 3 just enough to resolve matters neatly.

[@thetricondon]

Phew, this one took me a while. Roughly two hours and fifteen minutes, including a hard reset after I botched my logic and broke the puzzle.

[@Carnage7314]

I'm so glad you did this puzzle because I saw it on LMG, tried to do it because I recognized the idea of it from one of the puzzles on I believe the thermo app, and attempted to do it. I got decently far along, but got to a dead end of sorts and had to give up so I'm glad I get to see how it should be done

[@booxmowo2684]

Definitely more approachable than most of Phistomefel's usual fare. First time I've been able to work through the entire thing before starting the video.

[@stevieinselby]

Simon: "I don't like the look of 9s" Me: _looks at the first digit that can be placed in the grid without any further deduction_ 🤨

[@bradstrickler]

What a fun spooning puzzle!! Took me a while for sure, but finished it on my own in about 45 min. Looking forward to watching Simon solve it way faster than me. I did it by shading 1's and 9's though, not realizing right away that the vertical spoons had to be consecutive.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I feel as if I must have watched this a couple of years ago, but maybe I missed it. I loved it tonight, and with the additional skill that I have gained over the past couple of years of watching you, Simon, and Mark, solve beautiful thermo puzzles like this one, I feel as if I could give this one a try on my own. It's on my list - and thanks for the video!

[@ajstrong1]

The last puzzle on the thermo app is very similar to this. Made this one easy to solve.

[@davidalderson]

At the start of the puzzle, 1 is forced into column 5 in box 8 which means a 1 must be in column 6 in box 2. This forces r4c6 to be a 2 allowing the 89, 19 and 12 pairs to resolved much quicker.

[@geoff544]

Why cant the 1 be in c4 in box 2?

[@davidalderson]

@@geoff544 You're correct, it does break, but not until later. Think I just got lucky. I'd been wondeering how I'd managed to complete a puzzle in half the time of Simon 😀

[@ducttapemaster1408]

I got soo close to solving on my own, and came to almost every co conclusion Simon did except like one or two and it cascaded. What an amazing puzzle

[@kaspermoss8198]

I felt brilliant noticing that all the thermometers had to be progressive 5 minutes before Simon did, spent 20 minutes trying to actually apply that in any useful way and came back for the rest of the video... Some day, I will solve my 2nd puzzle from this channel...

[@samus88]

I just solve my first Phistomefel puzzle. I can't believe this. It was so fun.

[@teruokun-us]

Got it in 18:22! Very proud of that time and it was great fun! Thanks again Phistomefel for the great puzzles!

[@walkingwriter4325]

Awesome puzzle! Great solve! I did get the 1 and 9 digits in Box 9, but after 26 minutes with no clue how to proceed, I watched your solve. I could hear your mental gears spinning. :D

[@kmjohnny]

Simon: Mark likes to fill the thermometers, not me.

[@williamgreer7601]

37:38 for me, for a minute I thought Phistomefel had gone soft when i got 2 digits in the first 30 seconds, but I soon saw that was not the case. I figure out the 89/19/12 verticals pretty quick but took me quite some time to figure out that the lined up thermos had to be sequential thermos. Once I understood that i starting making quick progress.

[@solitary-sun]

"This is absolutely beautiful .. or at least very interesting" is my favourite line

[@EddieTheLiar]

Very enjoyable. Took me just over half an hour which I'm proud of given it usually takes me at least double the video length

[@johnlorenz377]

Simon, You probably have already finished the puzzle.... Exactly right! I just watched the rest of the video to make sure he got it right. Actually got as far as thinking about starting about 1 and 9 but watching was much more enjoyable

[@rizka7945]

First Phistomefel puzzle I've ever solved!

[@BookofAeons]

I'm on a four day streak of breaking the puzzle but enjoying it enough to start over and give it another shot (:

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 106 minutes. That break-in was enjoyable to spot. After that, I filled in most possibilities and limited my 7s to only two places. That was 45 minutes in. It took me from there to my final time to get the ending. I didn't want to bifurcate and keep trying different values. I did spot that it cycled for 357 or 468 for the ends of the thermos on the right sides. This was my key as the thermo in the row 9/box 9 had the middle of the thermo in box 9. This meant that 357 cycle was impossible, since it would put an 8 on the middle of a thermo, as the only other cell had a 9 on it. That took a long time to find, but it was glorious when I did. Great Puzzle!

[@HenryRSeymour]

Wait, is the name at 1:55 Jeroen Doumen!? As in one half of Splotter? If so, that's amazing! What an incredible meeting of worlds. Jeroen Doumen makes some of the best complex board games in the world!

[@thedavecwright]

Well, I saw Phistomefel and thought "No chance"... but then saw 37 mins and thought I'd give it a go. Nice simple rule set, really enjoyable to do... always worried it would break near the end, but managed to keep track of the logic. Probably took about 90 mins in the end, but made continuous progress. Might only be 3/5 difficulty, nicely challenging for me. Thank you, Phistomefel, thank you CTC!

[@sanctionbuster]

20:22. Buzzed through that beast like a chainsaw. My best performance yet.

[@arpez]

Love the fact that there are virtual thermos in the empty slots in row 234 and row 678 where after 9 it resets to 1. Also nice to see phistomephel making puzzles for mortals too

[@boonsterboom3470]

had to watch it partly, as i was struggeling in the beginning, however what helped me most later, was the realization, the 6 vertical thermos in boxes 3/6/9 talk to each other in such a way, that the bulbs cannot contain sequential numbers, if they are consecutive thermos - which they are and simon proved it. You then realize relatively fast, that the top three cannot contain 8 or 9 so they have to be 123, 345, 567 thermos, and hence to bottom three have to be 234, 456, 678, as they cannot have a 9 as well. after that it is maily normal sudoku rules.

[@shteevuk]

Neat puzzle! I was a bit upset when I reached the end of my solution but didn't feel I'd fully grasped all the subtleties of the thermometers :)

[@ajpal]

This video has so many of those "Aha! I just figured out this bit of logic...but how does that help me?" moments that I love.

[@skyerae722]

I really enjoyed this puzzle. I needed to consult the video because I missed that the 3's and 4's were restricted in column 5, but otherwise I was able to figure out the logic on my own. It was neat to see how all the thermos were interacting with each other and restricted where the digits could go.

[@thefallenarm589]

I'm surprised Simon didn't spot that the 9-wing, implies a 8-wing on r3 and r7 because a 8 anywhere else on these rows would imply a 9 just after (and that's not possible). With the same logic, you get a 7wing (that's how I cracked in) and you can deduce many things from there (I'm at 16:00 in the vid for now)

[@Playmaker6174]

Even triple like 8-9-1 follows the thermo constraint but in a loop, so it's like "invisible thermo" :)

[@JeffKotz]

Elegance, indeed. Thanks as always for the solve.

[@meeprific]

I looked at this one, thought it might be doable for me, put in the 9 and 1 in the bottom corner, then promptly gave up and am now watching the expert do it. :P

[@joeeuston]

"oh bobbins..." is my new favourite phrase. It's just so loveably english

[@marcelweber7813]

My first Phistomefel solve. Proud af.

[@Azeltir]

This reminds me a lot of your recently added puzzle #80 on the Thermo app, with the repeated thermometer logic.

[@awilliams1701]

I think that's the only one in the whole app I hate. lol

[@ryanager8029]

That was a delight

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

My first thought on this: HOW IS THIS SOLVABLE? Spent 40 minutes until I got a conflict on where 6 goes in row 6, so I started over, this time focusing on the 6 and it took me another 30 minutes.

[@achad1607]

Solved it the next morning, after few hours work. I thought I solved the placements of 8 and 9, but, didn't. I "solved" it quickly, until stuck. Starting over, I figured the 8-9 in box 1, and, solved from there. A key observation that makes the puzzle much easier is that in column 3 the 1 is either in r1 or r5 [having offset 1-2-3's and 7-8-9's breaks the puzzles by leaving three thermos with 456 in the first two positions.]

[@chrisphillips2467]

Aaaaalmost solved it unaided. And whilst it took me much longer than Simon, I was still screaming things out that I felt was obvious watching back afterwards! Very surprised he didn't immediately realist each 3 had to be consecutive on the verticals.

[@Streunekater]

All day I'm the one that uses his brain and most other people around me don't. It is really a joy to watch someone intelligent that uses his brain on something someone else invented with theirs without having to use mine at all 😄 Thank you!

[@darkerarts]

93 minutes with a couple of mistake towards the end. I can't believe I actually finished this one. I've found a lot of them too difficult recently 😁 Must admit, the start was pretty easy though with a bit of subtraction logic

[@victorolosaurus]

I haven't played in a long time and it took me 53minutes, but I really enjoyed this one. It felt fair

[@davidsmith1998]

Such a beautiful puzzle!

[@lukengda]

Wow, I went a completely different route. Once I worked out where the 8 goes in box 9, I've noticed the logic that you applied minute 31 to the thermos in box 9 and solved it only from this end out. I wouldn't have solved it your way ^^

[@paulbelanger7383]

.... ignores the 2 at the bottom of column 7... had me screaming at the screen... 😭

[@MitchellD249]

And then proceeds to ignore the 2 he adds in column 8 as well, I don't know how he managed to avoid noticing that the last bulb was utterly surrounded by 2s.

[@richardfox6595]

The grid is a work of art.

[@tychoderkommentator2989]

how are you guys so fast? It took me 65 minutes to figure this out. And I was kind of proud of myself

[@Skullman1985]

What's the opposite of tunnel-vision? Wide-vision? Simon gets a 2, ignores the near 2 in the row to get rid of the far 2, and wanders off to the left side while I'm sitting here yelling at a recording for him to finish the right side. 😂

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

I finished the puzzle!! :-D :-D :-D *bounce*bounce* All by myself! (no clues from the video) I had to transcribe it onto paper, so I then didn't include time I was sharpening my pencil, and I took some breaks. Assuming I didn't mess up doing the timing when my phone rang, 2hrs 15min. I am very pleased I tried this one. Approachable enough, none of the steps individually needed massively hard logic, so speeding up will just be a matter of practice. Very, very pleased I finished it! *bounce*

[@Afterthoughtbtw]

The non-setters should check out Dimono's video too - it's fascinating.

[@TheMeanderingduck6]

I remember that puzzle from the art pack doing a similar thing with the 3 cell thermos.

[@Mujaki]

You should have released this video one day later, on May the Fourth, "Star Wars Day." To solve it you used a squadron of X-Wings!

[@yaycupcake]

heh. I happened to play the latest thermo sudoku puzzle in the app today, after having coincidentally just watched this video, and I knew exactly what to do there thanks to this.

[@MubarkAlKhatlan]

took me 1 hour just to understand the puzzle and 34:00 to solve .. I am happy that I tried to solve it

[@warwickpulley4548]

The rows of 7 thermo bulbs have to contain the digits 1-7 in some order (otherwise some thermo will go over 10). This gives the 8/9 pairs. Logic as used later on shows the next entries of the thermos have to be 2 to 8 (leaving 1/9 pairs) then the next thermo rows have to be 3 to 9 (leaving the 1/2 pairs).

[@mightworth3735]

Quote of the day: "now we can repeat the question"

[@bobblebardsley]

14:04 Knowing this channel and its audience I'm gonna guess I'm not the only person who involuntarily said "...blast off" out loud.

[@alvaropallete]

This must be the easiest puzzle from Phistomefel, probably his own challenge of 1 hour setting

[@jamesblanton3744]

Simon sometimes has complete tunnel vision

[@MatthewDavis-hw4cq]

Missing the two at the bottom of the 7th column resolving one of the thermos, yet finding the long way round. Classic.

[@susanne5803]

I returned to this beautiful puzzle in the hope of being able to solve it after several months on CtC. Well, how do I put it: I needed less help by video than I would have needed four months ago ... Thank you very much!

[@HugSeal42]

Great puzzle. I love how after getting the 1289's in row 2-4 & 6-8 row 9 got so tightly clamped. All the 9 x-wings look down at the only cells a 9 could go in except for c9,

[@chriswilson8118]

I would really love a video on tricks to get out of a seemingly stuck position. Something that does not appear to have any opportunities without guessing.

[@DukeBG]

Enjoyed it and solved it few minutes faster than Simon!

[@Dankman9]

Great puzzle, interesting path and not too difficult.