Puzzles and magic. I work in what most people think are two distinct fields, but I believe they are the same. I am both a magician and a New York Times crossword puzzle constructor, which basically means I've taken the world's two nerdiest hobbies and combined them into one career. And I believe that magic and puzzles are the same because they both key into one of the most important human drives: the urge to solve. Human beings are wired to solve, to make order out of chaos.
Enigmatika i iluzionizam. Radim na nečemu što većina doživljava kao dva različita područja, no za mene su jedno. Ja sam i mađioničar i kreator križaljki New York Timesa, što znači da sam uzeo dva najštreberskija hobija i sažeo ih u jednu karijeru. A meni su mađioničarstvo i enigmatika isti jer se oboje koriste jednim od najvažnijih ljudskih nagona: porivom za rješavanjem. Ljudi su stvoreni za rješavanje, da stvore red iz kaosa.
It's certainly true for me. I've been solving my whole life. High school consisted of epic Scrabble matches in the cafeteria and not really talking to girls, and then at about that time I started learning magic tricks and definitely not talking to girls. There's nothing like starting a conversation with, "Hey, did you know that 'prestidigitation' is worth 20 points in Scrabble?" But back then, I noticed an intersection between puzzles and illusion. When you do the crossword puzzle or when you watch a magic show, you become a solver, and your goal is to try to find the order in the chaos, the chaos of, say, a black-and-white puzzle grid, a mixed-up bag of Scrabble tiles, or a shuffled pack of playing cards. And today, as a cruciverbalist — 23 points — and an illusion designer, I create that chaos. I test your ability to solve.
To je za mene istina. Cijeli svoj život rješavam. Srednjoškolsko doba ispunila su Scrabble natjecanja u kafiću i nisam baš pričao s djevojkama, a onda sam negdje u to vrijeme počeo učiti mađioničarske trikove i uopće nisam pričao s djevojkama. Nema boljeg početka razgovora od, “Hej, znaš li da ‘iluzionizam’ vrijedi 20 bodova u Scrabbleu? Još tada, uočio sam preklapanje između enigmatike i iluzije. Rješavate li križaljku ili gledate nastup mađioničara postajete onaj koji rješava, i vaš je cilj pokušati naći red u kaosu, kaosu, recimo, crno-bijele slagalice, vrećice izmiješanih Scrabble pločica, ili promiješanog špila karata. A danas kao autor križaljki — 23 boda — i kreator iluzija, ja stvaram taj kaos. Propitujem vašu sposobnost rješavanja.
Now, it turns out research tells us that solving is as primal as eating and sleeping. From birth, we are wired to solve. In one UCLA study, newborns still in the hospital were shown patterns, patterns like this: circle, cross, circle, cross. And then the pattern was changed: triangle, square. And by tracking an infant's gaze, we know that newborns as young as a day old can notice and respond to disruptions in order. It's remarkable. So from infancy through old age, the urge to solve unites us all, and I even found this photo on Instagram of pop star Katy Perry solving a crossword puzzle with her morning coffee.
Dakle, istraživanja nam govore da je rješavanje jednako prirodno kao jesti i spavati. Od rođenja, programirani smo rješavati. U jednom UCLA istraživanju, novorođenčadi su još u bolnici pokazivali uzorke poput ovih: krug, križ, krug, križ. A onda se uzorak promijenio: trokut, kvadrat. A prateći pogled novorođenčeta, znamo da bebe stare samo dan mogu primijetiti i odgovoriti na remećenje reda. To je fantastično. Tako od kolijevke sve do u starost, sve nas povezuje nagon za rješavanjem. A čak sam i našao ovu fotografiju na Instagramu. Pop zvijezda Katy Perry rješava križaljku uz jutarnju kavu.
Like. (Laughter)
Sviđa mi se. (Smijeh)
Now, solving exists across all cultures. The American invention is the crossword puzzle, and this year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle, first published in The New York World. But many other cultures have their signature puzzles as well. China gives us tangrams, which would test solvers' abilities to form shapes from the jumbled pieces. Chaos. Order. Order. And order. That one's my favorite, let's hear it again. Okay. And how about this puzzle invented in 18th-century England: the jigsaw puzzle. Is this not making order out of chaos?
Rješavanje ćete naći u svim kulturama. Križaljka je američki izum, i ove godine slavimo stotu obljetnicu križaljke, prvi put objavljene u novinama The New York World. Mnoge su kulture s autohtonim mozgalicama. Kina nam je dala tangrame koji iskušavaju sposobnosti rješavača da slože oblike iz razbacanih dijelova. Kaos. Red. Red. I red. (Kukurikanje) Taj mi je najdraži, čujmo ga opet. (Kukurikanje) Dobro. A što kažete na ovu slagalicu smišljenu u Engleskoj u 18. stoljeću: puzle. Nije li to stvaranje reda iz kaosa?
So as you can see, we are always solving. We are always trying to decode our world. It's an eternal quest. It's just like the one Cervantes wrote about in "Don Quixote," which by the way is the root of the word "quixotry," the highest-scoring Scrabble word of all time, 365 points. But anyway, "Don Quixote" is an important book. You guys have read "Don Quixote," yes? I'm seeing some heads nod. Come on guys, really? Who's read "Don Quixote?" Let's do this. Raise your hands if you've read "Don Quixote." There we go. Smart audience. Who's read "Don Quixote?" Get them up.
Pa kao što vidite, mi uvijek rješavamo. Stalno pokušavamo dešifrirati naš svijet. To je vječita žudnja. Baš kao što je Cervantes opisao u “Don Quijoteu,” otkud potiče i riječ “donkihotìzam”, najbodovanija Scrabble riječ ikad, 365 bodova. Pa ipak, “Don Quijote” je važna knjiga. Čitali ste “Don Quijotea”, zar ne? Vidim neki kimaju glavom. Ma dajte ljudi, stvarno? Tko je čitao “Don Quijotea”? Dignite ruku ako jeste. Ajmo. Pametna publika. Tko je čitao “Don Quijotea”?
Okay, good, because I need somebody smart here because now I'm going to demonstrate with the help of one of you just how deeply rooted your urge to solve is, just how wired to solve all of you really are, so I'm going to come into the audience and find somebody to help me. Let's see. Everybody's looking away all of a sudden. Can I? Would you? What is your name? Gwen. I'm not a mind reader, I can see your name tag. Come with me, Gwen. Everyone give her a round of applause, make her feel welcome. Gwen, after you. (Applause)
Dobro, jer ću sad trebati nekog pametnog jer sad ću vam demonstrirati uz pomoć nekoga od vas koliko je duboko ukorijenjena vaša žudnja za rješavanjem i kako ste svi vi stvoreni za rješavanje, pa ću otići u publiku i naći nekog da mi pomogne. Da vidimo. Svi sad naglo gledaju u stranu. Mogu li? Biste li htjeli? Vaše ime? Gwen. Nisam vidovnjak, vidim Vam bedž s imenom. Pođite sa mnom, Gwen. Molim pljesak dobrodošlice za nju. Gwen, poslije Vas. (Pljesak)
Are you so excited? Did you know that your name is worth eight points in Scrabble? Okay, stand right here, Gwen, right here.
Jeste li uzbuđeni? Znate li da Vaše ime vrijedi osam bodova u Scrabbleu? Ok, stanite ovdje, Gwen, baš ovdje.
Now, Gwen, before we begin, I'd like to point out a piece of the puzzle, which is here in this envelope, and I will not go near it. Okay? And over here we have a drawing of some farm animals. You can see we have an owl, we have a horse, a donkey, a rooster, an ox, and a sheep, and then here, Gwen, we have some fancy art store markers, colors like, can you see that word right there? Gwen: Cobalt. David Kwong: Cobalt, yes. Cobalt. But we have a silver, a red, an emerald, and an amber marker, and Gwen, you are going to color this drawing just like you were five years old, one marker at a time. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I'm going to go over here. I don't want to see what you're doing. Okay, so don't start yet. Wait for me to get over here and close my eyes. Now Gwen, are you ready?
A sad, Gwen, prije nego počnemo, Htio bih ukazati na dio slagalice, ovdje u ovoj omotnici, i neću joj se prbližavati, ok? A ovdje su crteži nekih domaćih životinja. Možete vidjeti sovu, konja, magarca, pijetla, vola i ovcu, a ovdje, Gwen, imamo neke šminkerske flomastere u bojama. Možete li vidjeti onu riječ? Gwen: Kobaltna. D.K.: Da, kobaltna. A imamo i srebrni, crveni, smaragdni i žuti flomaster, a Gwen, Vi ćete obojati crteže baš kao da imate pet godina, s po jednim flomasterom. Bit će jako zabavno. A ja ću otići onamo. Ne želim gledati što radite. Nemojte još početi. Čekajte da dođem i zažmirim. Dakle Gwen, jeste li spremni?
Pick up just one marker, pick up just one marker, and why don't you color in the horse for me? Color in the horse — big, big, big scribbles, broad strokes, don't worry about staying in the lines. All right. Great. And why don't you take that marker and recap it and place it on the table for me. Okay, and pick up another marker out of the cup and take off the cap and color in the donkey for me, color in the donkey. Big scribbles. Okay, cool, and re-cap that marker and place it on the table. And pick up another marker for me and take off the cap. Isn't this fun? And color in the owl for me. Color in the owl. Okay, and recap that marker and pick up another marker out of the cup and color in the rooster for me, color in the rooster. Good, good, good, good, good. Big, big, big strokes. Good, good. Pick up another marker out of the cup and color in the ox for me. Color in the ox. Okay, good. A lot of color on that, and recap, and place it on the table, and pick up another marker out of the cup. Oh, I'm out? Okay, I'm going to turn around. Did I forget? Oh, I forgot my purple marker. This is still going to work, though. I think this is still going to work, mostly.
Izaberite samo jedan flomaster. Možete mi obojiti konja? Obojite konja — črčkajte velikim potezima, ne brinite o urednosti. U redu. Izvrsno. Mogli bi začepiti taj flomaster i staviti mi ga na stol. Ok, sad uzmite drugi flomaster iz čaše i odčepite ga i obojite mi magarca, obojite magarca. Široko črčkanje. Dobro, sad začepite taj flomaster i stavite ga na stol. Odaberite drugi flomaster i odčepite. Nije li zabavno? I obojite mi sovu, obojite sovu. Ok, sad začepite taj flomaster i iz šalice izaberite novi i obojite mi pijetla, obojite pijetla. Dobro, dobro, dobro, široki potezi, dobro. Iz šalice izaberite novi flomaster i obojite mi vola, obojite vola. Ok, dobro. Stavite puno boje, začepite, vratite na stol i izaberite novi flomaster iz šalice. Oh, nemam više? Okrećem se. Jesam li što zaboravio? Zaboravio sam svoj ljubičasti flomaster. Svejedno, mislim, uglavnom će funkcionirati. Gwen, dat ću Vam ovu omotnicu.
So Gwen, I'm going to hand you this envelope. Don't open it yet. Do not open it yet, but I am going to write down your choices so that everybody can see the choices that you made. Okay, great. So we have a cobalt horse, amber owl, a silver ox, yes, okay, a red donkey, and what was the emerald color? A rooster. An emerald rooster. Okay.
Nemojte ju još otvoriti, ne još. Ali ću napisati što ste izabrali tako da svi mogu vidjeti ono što ste izabrali. Ok, sjajno. Imamo kobaltnog konja, žutu sovu, srebrnog vola, da, ok, crvenog magarca, a što je bilo zeleno? Pijetao, smaragdni pijetao. Ok.
Now for the moment of truth, Gwen, we're going to take a look in that envelope. Why don't you open it up and remove the one piece of paper from inside and hand it to me, and we will see if it matches your choices. Yes, I think it does. We have a cobalt horse, we have a red donkey, we have an amber owl, we have an emerald rooster, a silver ox, I forgot my purple marker so we have a blank sheep, but that's a pretty amazing coincidence, don't you think? Gwen, well done. That's beautiful. (Applause) I'll take that back from you.
A sad trenutak istine, Gwen, zavirit ćemo u omotnicu. Otvorite i uzmite komad papira iz nje i dodajte mi ga pa ćemo vidjeti odgovara li Vašem izboru. Da, mislim da odgovara. Kobaltni konj, crveni magarac, imamo žutu sovu, zelenog pijetla, srebrnog vola. Zaboravih ljubičastu pa je ovca prazna, a to je prilično nevjerojatna slučajnost, ne? Gwen, bravo. Lijepo je. (Pljesak) Uzet ću to natrag.
So ladies and gentlemen, how is this possible? How is this possible? Well, could it be that Gwen's brain is so wired to solve that she decoded hidden messages? Well this is the puzzle I present to you. Could there be order in the chaos that I created? Let's take a closer look. Do you recall when I showed you these puzzle pieces? What image did it ultimately become? A cobalt horse. The plot thickens. And then we played a game of tangrams with an emerald rooster. That one's my favorite. And then we had an experiment with a silver ox. And Katy Perry drinks her morning coffee out of an amber owl. Thank you, Katy, for taking that photo for me. Oh, and there's one more, there's one more. I believe you colored a red donkey, Gwen. Ladies and gentlemen, could you raise your hands for me if you've read "Don Quixote?" Who's read "Don Quixote?" (Laughter) But wait, but wait, wait, wait, wait, there's more. There's more. Gwen, I was so confident that you were going to make these choices that I made another prediction, and I put it in an even more indelible place, and it's right here. Ladies and gentlemen, we have today's New York Times. The date is March 18th, 2014. Many of you in the first couple of rows have it underneath your seats as well. Really dig. We hid them under there. See if you can fish out the newspaper and open up to the arts section and you will find the crossword puzzle, and the crossword puzzle today was written by yours truly. You can see my name above the grid. I'm going to give this to you, Gwen, to take a look. And I will also put it up on the screen. Now let's take a look at another piece of the puzzle. If you look at the first clue for 1-across, it starts with the letter C, for corrupt, and just below that we have an O, for outfielder, and if you keep reading the first letters of the clues down, you get cobalt horse, amber owl, silver ox, red donkey, and emerald rooster. (Applause) That's pretty cool, right? It's The New York Times. But wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait. Oh, Gwen, do you recall how I forgot my purple marker, and you were unable to color the sheep? Well, if you keep reading starting with 25-down, it says, "Oh, by the way, the sheep can be left blank." (Laughter) (Applause) But wait, wait, wait, there's one more thing, there's one more thing, there's one final piece of the puzzle. Gwen, I am so grateful for your choices because if we take a look at the first letters of your combinations, we get "C-H-A-O-S" for chaos and "O-R-D-E-R" for order. That's chaos and order. We've all made order out of chaos.
Dakle, dame i gospodo, kako je to moguće? Kako je moguće? Može li biti da je Gwenin mozak tako vješt u rješavanju da je dešifrirala skrivene poruke? Eto to je zagonetka koju vam dajem. Može li biti reda u kaosu koji sam stvorio? Pogledajmo pobliže. Sjećate li se kad sam pokazivao dijelove ove slagalice? Što se složilo na kraju? Kobaltni konj. Postaje napeto. A onda smo se igrali tangramima sa zelenim pijetlom. (Kukurikanje) To mi je najdraže. A onda smo imali eksperiment sa srebrnim volom. I Katy Perry pije jutarnju kavu iz žute sove. Hvala, Katy, za ovu fotografiju. Oh, ima još nešto, još nešto. Mislim da ste magarca obojili crveno, Gwen. Dame i gospodo, ruke gore ako ste pročitali “Don Quijotea”. Tko je pročitao “Don Quijotea”? (Smijeh) Čekajte, čekajte, ima još, ima još. Gwen, bio sam tako siguran da ćete baš tako birati da sam napravio još jedno predviđanje, i stavio ga na još očitije mjesto, a to je upravo ovdje. Dame i gospodo, imamo današnji New York Times. Datum je 18. ožujka, 2014. Mnogi od vas u prvim redovima imate ga pod svojim sjedalima. Potražite, sakrili smo ga ispod. Vidite možete li izvući novine i otvoriti rubriku kulture i naći ćete križaljku, a današnju je križaljku napisala moja malenkost. Moje je ime iznad. Dat ću Vam je Gwen, da je pogledate. A pokazat ću je i na ekranu. Sad da pogledamo još jedan dio slagalice. Pogledate li prvi ključ za 1-vodoravno, počinje slovom C, za corrupt, odmah ispod je O, za outfielder, a nastavite li čitati prva slova danih ključeva dobit ćete kobaltnog konja, žutu sovu, srebrnog vola crvenog magarca i smaragdnog pijetla. (Pljesak) Prilično odlično, zar ne? To je The New York Times. Ali čekajte, čekajte. Oh, Gwen, sjećate se, zaboravio sam ljubičasti flomaster, i niste mogli obojati ovcu? Nastavite li čitati počevši od 25 okomito, piše, Oh, usput, ovca može ostati prazna.” (Smijeh) (Pljesak) Ali, čekajte, ima još nešto, još jedna stvar. Ima još jedan konačni djelić slagalice. Gwen, jako sam zahvalan na Vašem izboru jer ako pogledamo prva slova Vaših kombinacija dobivamo “C-H-A-O-S” za kaos i “O-R-D-E-R” za red. To je kaos i red. Svi smo mi pravili red iz kaosa.
So ladies and gentlemen, the next time you find yourself with a puzzle, whether it's in your life or in your work, or maybe it's at the Sunday morning breakfast table with The New York Times, remember, you are all wired to solve.
Pa, dame i gospodo, sljedeći put kad se nađete pred zagonetkom, bilo u privatnom životu ili na poslu, ili za doručka nedjeljom s novinama na stolu, sjetite se, svi ste vi stvoreni za rješavanje.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)