Humans are remarkably good at recognizing patterns.
That ability is useful in everyday life. It lets us quickly recognize familiar objects, understand conversations and make decisions without consciously analyzing every detail.
But the same shortcut can cause problems in riddles.
When we see a question containing familiar numbers, our brain may try to finish the problem automatically.
We recognize a relationship.
We remember a similar puzzle.
We perform a quick calculation.
Then we stop.
The danger is that we may have answered the question we *expected* rather than the question that was actually asked.
That’s the trap.
