• Mood: impressed

Unforseen benefits of soduko

For access control to our work areas, we use a standard 10-key touch-pad. The code changes periodically, including today at 11:00 a.m. I remembered this on a trip to the bathroom that, since I pass through the publicly accessible elevator lobby, requires use of the code to complete the trip.

I thought I'd remembered the code, but when I tried it, it didn't work. I could press the "need assistance" button and endure the ridicule of co-workers I haven't yet met, or I could try to puzzle out the code. I knew that it was a four-digit code that included three numbers. So I set about to go through them methodically.

As I did so, I reflected on the sudoku puzzles that I've played with on and off since erickavan took them up. I don't know that the pattern recognition of those helped, but it felt like the same brain processes were being tapped.