What personality types love puzzles?

[curiousel]

the old puzzles, no digital gizmos.

and what type finds them stupid?

 

[Little_Sticks]

I think by the nature of sensing, sensors will not have a personal interest in them other than to show someone they are capable, if their intelligence is called into question. That's been my experience between an ISTP and an ISTJ I've known.

But intuition will be drawn to them more naturally.

 

[Randomnity]

Are they red puzzles or green puzzles?

 

[highlander]

the old puzzles, no digital gizmos.

and what type finds them stupid?

I hate puzzles. Think they are a waste of time. There is nobody to compete against. It's not exciting. Have always wondered if other INTJs think that.

 

[Totenkindly]

When i was growing up, my best friend ESFP loved Rubik's Cube. He could do it in minutes. I found it interesting, but never cared to memorize those patterns -- big-picture wise, it seemed to just not have a point. memorize a solution? Just to get a block with same-colored sides? Then again, I did lesser puzzles and found it fun to figure out how to make them work, so....

I also dislike Sudoku for the same reason, you're just testing and pushing numbers around on paper in order to get a block of numbers that fit together. That's it. What's the point? But I've found a lot of ISJ types in my life enjoy those puzzles -- I guess the puzzles are more concrete and have actual answers.

Then again, those logic problems that show up in Games Magazine for years? Where you're given five people with five items with five locations and five other stipulations (for example), and a few rules, and have to figure out who everyone is and where they live and what they own just from those rules? I really liked those... but then again, I've found that a wide variety of people (including the ISJs) seemed to like them too.

Again, like all the other questions here, there might be some loose type connections to TYPE of puzzles, but there's a lot of overlap.


...now, if you're talking jigsaws? I liked them when very young, then quickly grew bored. I mean, I'm just looking at pieces and wasting all this time trying things until finally I get a picture... whereupon I have to break it up back to the pieces or frame it or something.

But my ISTJ father in law really really them and still does them. I knew another IS type who actually made his own out of pictures and wood and a real jigsaw.

 

[Orangey]

I like puzzles. They're a fun and mildly engaging (if useless) way to pass the time.

 

[miss fortune]

I like sudoku and crossword puzzles... and have a possibly unhealthy addiction to playing brick breaker. I really don't enjoy rubix cubes or visual puzzles though... I kind of suck at anything spatially intelligence based

however, the man thinks that puzzles and rubix cubes and other types of physical puzzles are LOTS of fun- he also enjoys crosswords and sudokus and such to the point where one of our first couple activities was to do crossword puzzles together

 

[Such Irony]

I hate puzzles. Think they are a waste of time. There is nobody to compete against. It's not exciting. Have always wondered if other INTJs think that.

I like puzzles. Why do puzzles have to be a competition against others? Anyway, I sometimes compete with myself when doing puzzles. I see how fast I can solve a certain type of puzzle and see if I can improve my skills next time. Maybe its a waste of time in the whole scheme of things in the sense of that its not making me a better person overall, except for my ability to solve the puzzle. I still find myself drawn to them though.


As far as types go, there are so many different kinds of puzzles that its difficult to attribute to one type. Some puzzles like Sudoku and Crosswords seem to be enjoyed by many different types. I guess if you want to look at overall trends, I'd guess IxTx types enjoy them the most. Many puzzles tend to rely on logical reasoning (T), require sustained concentration that you do alone (I). I think the S types go more for the puzzles like Sudoku that have one right answer or things like jigsaws that require attention to visual details. N types seem to prefer the lateral thinking types of puzzles and the brainteasers. Crosswords seem to attract both S and N types. S types seem to rely on their vast storehouse of information, N types more on reading between the lines and realizing that the clues can be interpreted in more than one way. Overall, I'd say N's tend to enjoy them somewhat more than S types because S types are more likely to have the attitude of "how is this useful in the real world?"

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

My grandfather who I believe is some form of ISTx really enjoys puzzles… 3-D puzzles and everything.

I find them boring and tedious.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I dislike puzzles. Must be type related.
I also have a hard time using chopsticks with my right hand. Is that type related?
I find keyboard typing difficult. Is that type related?
eagerly awaiting your judicious and well-considered opinions.

 

[skylights]

there are so many different types of puzzles engaging different types of intelligence that i think it is very, very hard to correlate this with type.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I hate jigsaw puzzles.

 

[NPcomplete]

I find jigsaw puzzles rather pointless. I do enjoy logic games though.

 

[Fluffywolf]

I loved them when I was younger (like age 10-14), but I don't like them nowadays. Only sheer boredom and nothing else to do can get me doing puzzles nowadays.

 

[Tamske]

Depends. Jigsaw puzzles? No way! I *can* solve a 12-piece one(*), but only if there is a three-year-old-or-something to help/entertain me.
Crosswords? Sudoku? Cryptogram? Japanese picture puzzle? Logic puzzle? Mathematics proof? Physics theory? Yay!
I guess, as long as there are pencils or pens in it, I'm all for it.

(*) Okay, that's exaggerated. I suppose I can solve more boring, long-winded (i.e. more pieces) ones if you'd pay me.
And now I remember I've enjoyed greatly some three-dimensional cube ones. I had six differently-coloured, ordinary jigsaws, made from foam. Each had six pieces and could be assembled into the original rectangle or into a cube. The nicest of the thing was: with more of them, you could also make bigger three-dimensional shapes. There was a little booklet, saying eg. "make a 2/1/1 orthogonal prism with some pieces out of the the green and orange one". That I liked. It made "jigsaw" actually more difficult instead of just longer!

 

[kissmyasthma]

I was obsessed with puzzles as a kid. According to my mom, I'd solve jigsaw puzzles over and over again. My younger ISFP sister, however, just liked to break them, haha.

Nowadays, I'm not a big fan of jigsaw puzzles. The last one I remember doing was a 500 piece Lord of the Rings puzzle that I got as a Christmas present when I was about 11 or 12. What made that one fun was the fact that people would stop by (it being the holidays, and all) and we'd all sort of casually work on the puzzle while chatting.

 

[ICUP]

I loved Rubik's Cube. Never liked jigsaw puzzles. Don't care for puzzles now.

 

[freeeekyyy]

I like puzzles, but if it takes more than a few minutes to figure out and there's no payoff for doing so, I don't bother. It's a waste of time.

 

[redacted]

My ISTJ mom likes jigsaw puzzles. And crossword puzzles. And anagram puzzles.