Episode · EconTalk · 2022-06-27
Books mentioned on A.J. Jacobs on Solving Life's Puzzles
How much of life can be solved by algorithms, and how much just can't be solved? Listen as A.
Russ Roberts discussed The Puzzler by A.J. Jacobs.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Puzzler
The Puzzler by A.J.
Discussed“he was last year in november of 2018 talking about his book 2 11.7 thanks a thousand 3 13.1 his latest book is the puzzler one man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (10) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged The Puzzler
“i want to thank you that you are partially responsible for this book 208.8 because uj as you know we talk uu occasionally”
Plugged The Puzzler
“and puns are sometimes seen as the lowest form of humor 425.5 but i have a little uu section in my book in defense of word play in defense of puns”
Plugged The Puzzler
“i actually did have a fact checker on the book 1537.2 so it is”
Plugged The Puzzler
“and i have in my book a picture of a uu he calls his work of art the iron horse because the back half is a horse and the front half is a train”
Plugged The Puzzler
“and the book ends with a puzzle that cannot be solved that i co-created a mechanical puzzle that is that is so complicated it will take until the end of the universe to solve”
Passing Curious
“and we recently had uu and leslie on the program talking about his book curious”
Plugged The Puzzler
“and this book is a bit of an uu ode to the power of curiosity 2399.3 and i talk about in my book i heard a phrase from a child psychologist”
Plugged The Puzzler
“he said you have a cheap chess set 3075.1 yes 3075.6 he was not impressed”
Plugged The Puzzler
“so i i start the the book with that anecdote”
Plugged The Puzzler
“and that is why originally i was gonna write puzzles for the book 3880.8 i was gonna write 20 original puzzles”