Mark's Verdict: "Simon Is A Mad Genius."

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

It's Mark here! Let me know if you agree that Simon's solve of this puzzle proves he is a mad genius! (I did not solve the puzzle his way at all)

[@10prozenthimmel]

@crackingthecryptic I’d really love to see Mark’s solution to the same puzzle too 🤩

[@Timlagor]

The surprising thing is that you didn't already know ..or course when he says he won't pencilmark the thermos what he doesn't mention is that he just knows the restrictions in his brain so he doesn't need them on the screen

[@debrabowen4276]

I don’t even need to watch the solve to agree with you!

[@vjay4297]

I agree with you Mark.. also I would like to add that you are a sane genius.. 😉

[@vjay4297]

I'm talking about the colours, of course

[@pnmrv]

“I try and do thermometer sudoku just by staring at them” - Simon the Great

[@stumbling]

Need to update the intro to reflect Mark's 13th Times Crossword title.

[@ronjohnson6916]

I love watching Simon do thermos. It's so alien to my way of thinking about them and so often I learn mad ways to think about the situation.

[@Squishy3757]

Hmm. Simon ribs Mark for over pencil marking and says it’s confusing and proceeds to color the grid in just as many colors.

[@kathyjohnson2043]

I would argue that all of those colors ARE pencil marks; Simon is just more colorful than he realizes.

[@MarkBennet10001]

When I first solved the puzzles in the CTC thermo app I was hot on pencil-marks, because I was not so confident about seeing the logic quickly. I then re-did all the puzzles trying to pencil-mark as little as possible. That improved my solving, but it takes time and practice to get good. There are puzzles where you have to think about the logic, and this can be obscured by the pencil-marks and there are others where identifying triples and quadruples is essential to the solve (this can be done by thinking if you practice, but comes immediately with pencil marks if they are straightforwardly there). A third type of thermo puzzle has (sometimes very) short thermos and SET- based logic based on getting the bulbs and tips into different SETs. All varieties are interesting and Blashyrkh has come up with another stunner. When I am analysing puzzles to see where the pinch points might be if I am stuck, pencil-marks are still my default, because I can't always hold all the logic in my head. And what a lovely solve this was by Simon, showing what is possible.

[@biegeldog]

I love how many times he overlooks the single black three. Keep up the brilliant work!

[@MeriaDuck]

I sometimes have the same experience, not seeing given digits in sparsely populated grids. Also Simon is quite well known for not doing Sudoku in variant puzzles for as long as possible 😂 And neither of them are meticulous in cleaning up pencil marks. They're big brain enough, my pea brain requires quite a bit of meticulousness to solve even easy puzzles 😂

[@eefaaf]

"Wieder zugeschlagen"="Strikes again"

[@Mozart4000]

1:27 "Very nice! The master of the thermos has done it again."

[@JetoXr]

'let's stare at it and see' hilarious

[@leeuwevdh]

Simon is the maddest genius I know!

[@cotroneigiuseppe888]

He is genuinely mad!!!

[@HeiniGurke]

I have watched too much of these videos. Every time I think about something there is this voice in my head -- if I come to a conclusion it says "In fact! That's it", if not it says "Bobbins".. This is a really peculiar way to get into my head. English is not even my native language. Or maybe I've just watched the right amount, because it sometimes really helps.

[@joshandreassen7361]

Just wait until a bobbins sneaks out in front of other people…😂

[@HeiniGurke]

​@@joshandreassen7361 .. oh I was thinking about Bilbo Bobbins from Lord of the Rinkidinks.

[@daniele_93]

Same here, not a native english speaker but I solve sudokus by thinking in english with Simon/Mark voices 😅

[@JohnPretty1]

"Bobbins" is Simon's made-up word.

[@A_CC_K]

Simon is a genius and a brilliant one too. Love the puzzle.

[@livedandletdie]

I mean Simon is pretty much a genius. He's very eccentric though, but still a genius for sure.

[@IAmKillerPotato]

Mark is a butcher, Simon is an artist

[@AleksandrYgA]

Managed to do this one in exactly 24:00, very nice thermo interactions, not to hard but not easy as well

[@daanperelachaise]

11:02 for me (solver 497). I hereby want to advocate for heavy pencilmarking ;)

[@HobbitJack1]

I like seeing simple puzzles!

[@srwapo]

62:13, SUPER impressed by how the thermos interact, but I basically did a lot of bifurcation to see it. This is harder than any of the puzzles in your thermo app! (though I'm only half finished, though I did several 10 stars in there)

[@LednacekZ]

had full set of pencilmarks in the solve. it helped me to find the 2s and 8s.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

54:12 for me. That was tough but fair. I didn't see something I should've spotted much earlier.

[@MariaVlasiou]

We agree.

[@caolanmoore4027]

I love the way simon says thats impossible

[@10prozenthimmel]

17:04 you can sometimes tell when Simon is really excited, then he tends to lose his educated RP accent just a little bit. Here he says “I’ve spotted I’, I think.” 😊 (Can’t type small I with an apostrophe 🤣)

[@Timlagor]

37:00 If only Simon could see black digits he could have kept his pencil marks

[@Argoneui]

I found this pretty brutal, surprised to see all the low times here, what am I missing?

[@richardglover314]

I surprised myself by completing this. Started by saying could this be a 1 (R3C5), and it flowed very nicely until it broke. Then it seemed more intuition and went well and finally phistomefel ring elimination.

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 23:13 with help from the video.

[@denisdodelin-m1e]

Less than 1/2h. It's abnormal, I must have missed something somewhere and get lucky. I'll watch the video to learn what it was ^⁠_⁠^

[@caolanmoore4027]

I once tried to solve a thermo sudoku the mark way and i was just immediately lost in the sauce so i guess im a simon solver?

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

53:37 for me - I have no idea how I solved it.

[@Sinisest1121]

I use pencil marks. Max what i had pssible to see same thing with way slower speed.

[@domanski123442]

5 seconds 😮

[@scottwestleysmith3196]

I see the link to play this puzzle, but I don't see a link that would allow me to make my own.

[@AlmostM]

They often get puzzles from Logic Masters DE, you could try to make a puzzle there.

[@SourceOfBeing]

Have you or Mark ever set a sudoku and "tricked" the other into solving it?

[@robertcousins2274]

37:38 for me

[@dudbike]

I am a Mark solver. Not good enough to be a Simon solver.

[@williammorris7279]

That implies Simon is better, yet it is Mark who keeps winning Sudoku competitions (in addition to his amazing success in cryptic crossword competitions).

[@LednacekZ]

23:07 for me. nice logic, difficulty is even through the whole sudoku. not that hard. solver 132.