Cool, I'll do the puzzle...let's see here...
[goes away and comes back a few minutes later]
...uh, wait a sec...wtf? I may have to remain the unwashed and uneducated. Me no gettum puzzle thingy. 😆¯\(ツ)/¯
Comment has been collapsed.
Bump. I'll be afk most of today, but if you hazarded a guess yesterday, your hints will be coming up today on ITH. I think they should be a great help. I'm looking for dozens of solvers by day's end! (I hope I'm right!)
Comment has been collapsed.
Could I BE any more wrong?! Let me know what's holding you up, any of you folks who may still be mulling it over.
Comment has been collapsed.
I am sure that answer is in front of our eyes, but we are probably too blind to see it :D
I have no clue what to look for, congrats on good and hard puzzle I guess :D
Comment has been collapsed.
I didn't aim to make it impossible, and I still assert it's very solvable without hints. (But hints do appear after 24 hours.) I didn't expect this result at all.
There are 17 statements, and I thought if a person recognized what was going on in even just one, it would instantly reveal what to look for in all the others.
If come Monday midday or so there are still very few solvers, I'll seriously consider being more explicit with the hints. But I don't want it to be a recipe to follow, rather than a puzzle to unravel.
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm gonna flat-out state that you're wrong.
This is a problem puzzle-makers often have - the solution seems reasonable and attainable, but you're making an association that no one else does. You did something very clever, but it's not something objective that everyone can figure out, rather, it's subjective in a way that others can't grasp because the "solution" requires intuition.
If it was solvable, someone would have solved it by now
Comment has been collapsed.
Fair enough. And I know it's a different style than most of the puzzles on this board. When I get some time tomorrow (another busy day today), I'll put something up to guide folks a little better.
Comment has been collapsed.
also, my apologies if my tone comes off anything less than friendly.
I am appreciative of you doing this and am grateful for it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, I've still got nothing. Looked at highlighted phrases, searched for commonalities, something missing among all of them, some kind of consistency, some theme...nope, still not seeing anything. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Comment has been collapsed.
The theme/topic is in the title. Words of that color are meant to guide you.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think the first statement is the easiest one, I would recommend to focus on this one to reveal what's going on.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think 2 and 3 are some of the easier ones, as well.
Comment has been collapsed.
Maybe this will help constrain dead ends: there is no code, cipher (transposition or substitution), rotation, letter arithmetic, anagrams, or acronyms at play. It's all done with the words just as they are there.
Comment has been collapsed.
It's hardly a hint when the whole thing makes absolutely no sense. :P
I tried many "keys" but nothing formed any sensible answer. So that's what I'd like to know: does the "answer" make any sense, or is it just a string of random letters?
Comment has been collapsed.
Bump, I feel like I got it. I'm missing two letters, tried guessing the answer, and it was wrong. Even if my answer makes sense.. ; A ;
Nevermind, bumped for solved!
Comment has been collapsed.
bump to bring people back to this puzzle, I believe it's worth it...
Comment has been collapsed.
Clue posted in another puzzle that is loads easier, I promise.
Comment has been collapsed.
Bump for successfully getting from cluelessness to cluefulness! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
I just started and the ITH hint won't unlock until after the giveaway ends. Can you share what it says?
Comment has been collapsed.
Honestly, there's not a lot that's exclusively in the hint anymore. I added more help to the question itself after the first couple of days with only one solver. It says most of the text (and the acronym) is just humor, the answer has 17 letters derived from the 17 reasons (but something is missing in what you get from the reasons), and a hint about combining things.
The secondary puzzle provides a more explicit hint for getting meaning from the 17 reasons, and it's ITH hints unlock after 30 minutes.
Comment has been collapsed.
Even with the explanation, I'm still for the most part clueless about this puzzle :/
Comment has been collapsed.
For example, in number 1, you have [on auto] [big o] [extract bile]. If you select the correct word from each phrase, you get "auto o bile", or "auto_obile", and the missing letter is "m". Number 2 is "ste_m engine", so the missing letter is "a". And so on. Does that help?
Comment has been collapsed.
Welcome to SG Puzzles Institute of Technology!
Here at SPIT, we like puzzles. Good puzzles. Puzzles that challenge you, but are fair and sensible. Aha moment puzzles.
If you're also a puzzle enthusiast, you'll have a good time here.
Enroll today! Degrees available by next Friday!
Rewards are bundle leftovers (don't expect
oratetoo much), with an unbundled treasure thrown in to boot.Go here to unlock a Clue!
Post event explanation:
The pink text is the key. "Technology" is meant to provide a theme. From the bottom right, clues to let you know if you're on the right track. Within each "reason", if you combine one word from each phrase of pink text you will find an important piece of technology, with a letter missing. The 17 missing letters form the solution, a "coveted degree":
Masters in Puzzling
I acknowledge this had a low completion rate, and figuring out the first step was a major obstacle for a great many people. I apologize, and I'll give more thought to that in any future puzzles.
Comment has been collapsed.