Song Of The Puzzlesmith, With Ian Livengood

It is important to have a silly little morning brain thing. Aside from the studies attesting to how beneficial these puzzles and games can be for your cognitive abilities, I just think it's nice to have something fun to do to get your brain stretched out before you put it to work in the significantly less amusing ways that each day requires. We have done a full weeklong collaboration with the people behind my silly little morning brain thing of choice, and this week Drew and I spoke to the person behind Drew's favorite pick: Ian Livengood, editor at New York Times Games and the man who oversees Drew's beloved Pips.

We did talk about Pips, which Drew truly loves, but for the most part our conversation focused more on the broader mysteries surrounding puzzles and games and things of that nature. Where do these games come from? Why do they beta-test them in Canada? Is the term "Games Jam" better or worse than "Ideas Party?" We talked about how this business works and how the people who come up with these games think of them, what they're trying to do, what makes the brains of people who can Think In Puzzle different, and figuring out that you are that type of person. There's some silly stuff in there—the word "zarfs" gets said a bunch, the idea of a 28 Days Later disease setting on your phone is floated, and a digression about the Argentinian specialist who devises the hardest logic puzzles in the world was especially gratifying—but Drew is a pretty serious puzzle sicko, and I am interested in how different types of brains work. Ian, for his part, was great company, and very patient with my general questions and Drew's extremely specific Wordle gripes.