Hanayama puzzles are metal puzzles that are challenging to take apart and put back together. If you get a bunch and learn to solve them, you’ll learn a lot of techniques that also have application in other areas of life, such as:
- Working backwards from an end goal.
- Keeping track of what you have done (and what you are currently doing), so you can later replicate the steps you have taken.
- Embracing asymmetry: a lot of solutions involve things that are somewhat off kilter.
- Avoiding “extreme” moves: moves that feel right (because they go all the way in one direction and thus are both easy and obvious moves), as they often aren’t the right solution.
- Looking for subtle differences: things that seem identical may not, on closer look, be exactly the same.
- Not repeating the same thing over and over expecting something different to result.
- Setting something down and coming back to it later.
- And (ultimately) realizing that in the grand scheme of things, it sometimes makes sense to give up on some problems and use someone else’s solution. None of us has enough time to solve everything!
Of course, experience is the best teacher, so get some of these puzzles and work with them to see these ideas in action.
One Idea 