Mysteries offer no such clarity of definition, and no objectively correct solution: they are imbued with vagueness and indeterminacy. We approach mysteries by asking ‘What is going on here?’, and recognise that even afterwards our understanding is likely to be only partial. They provide none of the comfort and pleasure of reaching the ‘right’... See more

A puzzle has well-defined rules and a single solution, and we know when we have reached that solution. Puzzles deliver the satisfaction of a clear-cut task and a correct answer. Even when you can’t find the right answer, you know it exists. Puzzles can be solved; they have answers. But the solutions may be difficult to find.

The best story wins. Not the best idea, or the right idea, or the most rational idea. Just whoever tells a story that catches people’s attention and gets them to nod their heads is the one who tends to be rewarded.

Archilochus: “The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”