Every year, for as many years as I can remember, by which I mean for this year and last year, I’ve participated in the MIT Mystery Hunt by joining a team that’s run by friends of mine like Tony Sindelar.

He’s been doing it the longest, and then Dan Morin’s been doing it for less long.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

That’s basically a joke for three people.

But anyway, the MIT Mystery Hunt, this annual puzzle-filled competition thing, I’m supposed to be doing it right now.

I’m supposed to have been doing it for the past hour, but as is also, I guess, MIT Mystery Hunt tradition, the website that powers this year’s puzzles is crashing under the load of everybody wanting to start the puzzles.

So right now I’m stalling, and I thought, hey, since we’re stalling, I can use the next five minutes to record this episode of Your Daily Lex.

Your Daily Lex.

I mean, I think it’s probably obvious to people who know me, even if they just know me via the internet or this podcast, that I like puzzles.

I do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle every day.

I do its Connections Puzzle every day.

I make my own Connections Puzzle.

I don’t make one every single day, but I have one for every single day.

I make them in advance.

I’m typically about a month to a month and a half ahead on those.

I do Wordle, which is not really a puzzle, but is Hangman.

I like puzzles.

I do Puzzmo, which is a newer daily puzzle thing, and I do it many days, but not all days because it doesn’t have an app, and it should have an app.

But I enjoy puzzles, and by making my Connections Puzzles, I’ve made a lot of crossword puzzles, a lot being a couple dozen.

I find crossword puzzles really hard to make, and I started making New York Times Connections style puzzles because I found them hard to make.

I like the way your brain has to work to make puzzles, and honestly, sometimes I think I’m better at making puzzles than solving them, but not always.

It’s been interesting as a maker of those Connections style puzzles, which to everyone’s great horror, I call Collections.

It’s interesting because the, I think I said it’s interesting 17 times so far this episode, but I want to make them, when you’re making a puzzle, at least in my case, I want people to be able to solve it.

I want it to be tricky, maybe even hard sometimes, but I want it to be solvable.

We, as puzzle solvers, want puzzles to seem like they’re hard, but be easy, is my overall experience.

So when my puzzles are challenging, fewer people do them, in part because some people don’t solve them, and those who do don’t post their scores, and if people don’t post scores, then fewer people see the puzzle that day, and so thus fewer people solve it.

Easier puzzles get done by more people each day, which I find really interesting.

And finding that sweet spot, that mix of where’s the puzzle hard enough, where is it too easy, is a thing.

And sometimes if people think the puzzle’s too easy, they tell me that too.

People are never shy about telling me how they feel about my puzzles.

Too easy today, or too hard today, or whatever.

It’s also, there are always some people who can solve it, right?

Like even the hardest ones where some people are posting their guesses for my puzzles where it’s like they took 20 or 30 tries, there’s people who get it in four, because some people can make their brains work like my brain, I guess.

But it’s really finding that spot where the puzzle feels like it was hard, but you can still do it.

That’s the trick of puzzle making, I think.

That’s the skill.

But I’m excited to do many, many puzzles.

It just hasn’t happened yet.

It was funny, we were doing a round of intros for all the people on this team that I’m on, the Grand Unified Theory of Love team, for solving the MIT Mystery Hunt puzzles this weekend.

As we were doing intros, you’re supposed to say what kind of puzzles you like doing the most.

And I’m never sure what to say if that question comes up, but I said I like puzzles that involve words and wordplay.

And then Tony pointed out that I’m also the guy who is ready to get hints.

There are definitely some people when you’re doing puzzles who do not want a hint, but I don’t like to be stuck.

If we’re stuck and we’ve spent a lot of time working on a puzzle, and I’m not talking like we’ve spent five minutes, I’m talking we’ve spent an hour and we have gone no further and we don’t know a way in, I will, I’m always the guy, as Tony pointed out, I’ll be like, why don’t we ask for a hint?

Because the system allows you to ask for a hint, and then a human gives you a hint based on your progress thus far.

And some people really are opposed to hints, which I get.

When Liam is solving one of my puzzles, he doesn’t want hints.

Lauren hates the idea of hints.

But I love getting unstuck a little bit, because I’d rather see where the puzzle is going and not be stuck.

And I appreciate that Tony referenced it as kind of a skill of mine.

I mean, it also a little bit, and this was not Tony’s point, it also a little bit was like, hey, Lex sucks at puzzles, so we ask for hints.

But it’s really, if the team can’t move forward, that’s when I’m like, hey, why don’t we get a hint?

Because, you know, hints are good.

That’s my opinion anyway.

What do I know?

I like hints.

And here’s a hint.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Also, I’ve been sharing, hey, I was going to do a Freestyle Friday rap today, but didn’t.

We all kind of knew that I would not do that in practice.

But I will do it soon.

I promise.

That will happen.

But as you may recall, we’ve been going through the new Liam and Lex album, The World Wasn’t Ready.

So wherever you listen to music, that means Apple Music, that means YouTube, that means Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, I don’t know.

It’s on all those things.

We’re up to Steak.

Liam does love steak.

I said, let’s write a song about steak, and he said, let’s make it a jazzy song.

And I’m like, great.

It’s like a bluesy, jazzy song.

It’s a little long.

It’s a little insane.

It features a phrase that Liam made up when he wants to have steak.

He’s like, we should have steaky steak or beefy beef.

So that phrase makes its way into the song, I think twice.

I don’t even know how to give you just a snippet.

The song is so good.

It’s insane, but good.

So here, I guess, is Olive Steak by Liam and Lex.

Good weekend, yo.

I eat a lot of pasta.

I love eating chicken wings.

I love a good grilled cheese.

So I’m begging on my knees.

Let’s make steak.

I crave a steak.

Make no mistake, from the moment I’m awake, I crave steak, steak, steak.

We don’t eat it too often.

When we do, it’s kind of rare.

There is no better treat than a big old slab of meat.

Let’s make steak.

I crave a steak.

Make no mistake, from the moment I’m awake, I crave steak, steak, steak.

We don’t eat it too often.

When we do, it’s kind of rare.

There is no better treat than a big old slab of meat.

Let’s make steak.

I crave a steak.

Make no mistake, from the moment I’m awake, I crave steak, steak, steak.

Steak.

Beefy beef.

Steaks are so good.

The beggars believe.

Steaky steak.

Beefy beef.

I gotta go get some.

So I’ll keep this brief.

I like my medium with some french fries on the side.

I don’t need any sauce.

It’s so good I’m at a loss.

Let’s make steak.

I crave a steak.

Make no mistake, from the moment I’m awake, I crave steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak.

Lex.