Thread by @ajjacobs

Here’s a little thread on a $10,000 contest I’m involved in (which you can still enter at thepuzzlerbook.com). And how it grew into something beyond my wildest ayahuasca-fueled dreams. (Disclaimer:I’ve never tried ayahuasca, so maybe I'd have imagined it if I’d done a bunch)

It began when I was a kid and read the 1979 British book “Masquerade.” The book had these amazing illustrations that contained hints to the location of a buried treasure. It sparked a frenzy.

People dug up yards and gardens all over England. They trespassed. They threatened the author, Kit Williams. Someone sent him a disembodied, bloody plastic hand. It was weird.

Finally, after more than a year, the treasure – a statue of a golden rabbit – was found buried near a monument to Catherine of Aragon, underneath the tip of a shadow it casts at noon on the equinox.

Cut to 2019. I started writing a book about my love of puzzles of all kinds – crosswords, jigsaws, the meaning of life, etc. And I knew I wanted to have a secret contest in it, a la Masquerade.

However, I didn’t want to cause property damage, so I decided against buried treasure. The prize would be $10,000.

At first, my plan was simple. There would be a secret code in the introduction. The first to crack it would get the prize.

But then I met some puzzlemakers who had more elaborate ideas. I met them at the MIT Mystery Hunt, an annual event where thousands of incredibly smart people converge on Boston for 72 hours of hardcore nerdery. It’s a race to crack some of the hardest puzzles you’ve ever seen.

These puzzles don't even have instructions. One was a box of donuts with USB flash drives stuffed inside (puzzles.mit.edu/2019/puzzle/fu…). Another was a yoga tutorial video for strange poses with faux-Dutch names (puzzles.mit.edu/2019/puzzle/de…).

I teamed up with one of them – Greg Pliska – to make original puzzles for the book, but also to head up the $10,000 contest. He brought in four other puzzler makers.

And it grew bigger and more complex. And it just kept growing. And growing.

The result is the Puzzler Hunt. You still have to find the hidden code in the intro. But once you put it into thepuzzlerhunt.com website, you’ll find a boatload of wild, mind-bending puzzles.

We are releasing one puzzle per weekday – we started on May 3 and will end on June 1. But you have time to catch up. You just have to solve all 22 puzzles by 12:01 pm ET June 4, and you can enter the final round when it begins. The first to finish the final round wins $10,000.

The theme is great historical puzzlers, so the first puzzle is this one, an homage to Arthur Wynne, inventor of the crossword.

Here’s another, a baffling twist on Wordle. (It's interactive, so you have to solve it on the site)

ALSO: No purchase necessary, must be at least 18 and a US resident to win. You don’t have to buy the book. The intro is free on the website. Otherwise it might be considered an illegal lottery, and I would be spending time at Rikers Island.

Thanks to the devious geniuses who wrote the puzzles: @gregpliska , @mattgruskin , Guy Jacobson, Tanis O’Connor and Max Woghiren/@mbingo . As well as the many puzzle testers. And to Joseph Hinson and Joshua Kennedy for building the website.

There are currently more than 1,300 contestants (including at least one billionaire!). But it’s not too late to join – you can catch up on the previously released puzzles at your leisure. Even if you don’t win the money, I recommend it. The aha moments are worth more than $10K.

Originally, I figured the $10,000 I took from my advance would be a loss leader. But it'll probably just be a loss. But that’s ok. It will, I hope, spread the love of puzzling. And I feel okay boasting about it, because I didn’t create the puzzles. Go forth and solve!

Shoot!! I meant thepuzzlerbook.com

And here's an image of the great Tennis O'Connor, who constructed many of the puzzles in the Puzzler Hunt