It's 4am, you've been awake for forty hours,
早上四点，你已经四十个小时没睡了，
when you unlock a puzzle containing this video of some kind of dance-off between a chicken and a roller-skating beaver.
你解开了一个谜题，里面有段视频：一只鸡和一只滑旱冰的海狸在尬舞。
The confusion and delight you're experiencing is a typical moment at the MIT Mystery Hunt,
此时你所感受到的困惑和喜悦，就是参与麻省理工学院寻宝竞赛的典型感受，
which is basically the Olympics meets Burning Man for a specific type of nerd.
基本上，它就像奥运遇上了火人节，针对某种怪胎举办。
Today, I'm going to take you inside this strange, intellectually masochistic and incredibly joyful world.
今天，我要带领你们进入这个奇特、自寻烦恼且极富趣味的世界。
But first, I have to explain what I mean when I say "puzzle."
但首先，我得要解释我所谓的谜题。
A puzzle-hunt-style puzzle is a data set.
寻宝形式的谜题是一种数据集。
It can be a grid of letters, a sudoku, a video, an audio
它可由文字、数独、影像、声音所构成，
it can be anything that contains hidden information that can eventually resolve into an answer that is a word or a phrase.
它可能是任何带有隐藏信息的东西，最终能够被破解，精炼成一个答案，可能是个字或句子。
So, to give you an example, this is a puzzle called "Master Pieces."
举个例子，这个谜题叫做“大师之作”。
It consists of 10 images of LEGO people looking at piles of LEGOs.
这个谜题由乐高人盯着一堆乐高的十张图片所构成。
And to save us some time, I'm going to explain what's going on here.
为了节省时间，我直接解释状况。
Each of the piles of LEGOs is a deconstructed work of art in the style of a famous artist.
每一堆乐高都是件艺术作品的解构，依循某一位知名画家的风格。
So, does anybody recognize the artist on the left?
有没有人可以认出最左边这一幅谁的作品呢？
They used a lot of red. I heard "Rothko," yeah. The second one? Mondrian.
他们用了许多红色。我听到有人说“罗斯科”，没错。第二张呢？蒙德里安。
Yeah, well done. And the third one? This is the hardest one -- Yeah, Klimt, I heard it.
耶，做得好。第三张呢？这是最难的一张。是的，克林姆，我听到了。
Well done, the color is the biggest clue there.
做得好，颜色是最明显的线索。
So the puzzle has various clues that tell you what matters here are the artists, not the specific works of art.
这个谜题有不同的线索，告诉你关键的是这些画家，而不是哪一幅作品。
And what you need to do is then look at what you haven't used yet, which is the number of LEGO people in each painting.
然后你必须看看，还有什么线索是你没用上的，像是每幅画前面乐高人的人数。
And you can count them and then count into the artists' last names by the same number of letters.
你数了人数，然后比对画家姓氏的字母排序。
So there's three people in front of the Rothko on the left, so you take the third letter, which is a T.
最左边有三个人站在罗斯科的画作前面，所以你取第三个字母，是T。
There's only one in front of the Mondrian, so you take the first letter, M.
只有一个人站在蒙德里安的画前面，所以你取第一个字母M。
And there's three again in front of Klimt, so you take the third letter, I.
同样的，有三个人站在克林姆的画前面，所以你取第三个字母I。
You do that for all 10 of the original artists and put them in the order, and you get the answer, which is "illuminate."
以此类推完成十个作家的作品，依次排序。你便得到答案ILLUMINATE。
Puzzles like this are about communicating an idea.
像这样的谜题都试图传达一个概念。
But where I'm trying to be as clear as possible for you now,
在此，我尝试想为各位说得透彻，
puzzles have to navigate the line between abstraction and clarity.
谜题必须平衡拿捏在抽象与具体之间。
They have to be obtuse enough to make you work for it,
谜题必须相当程度地易懂，让人去解它；
but elegant enough so you can get to the aha moment, where everything clicks into place.
但也必须够巧妙，让人享受心领神会的顿悟时刻，让每一件事情串联之后，恍然大悟。
Puzzle solvers are junkies for this aha moment -- it feels like a brief high and an instant of pristine clarity.
解谜题的人就像成瘾者，追寻着顿悟时刻--带来短暂的高度亢奋和瞬间的豁然开朗。
And there's also a deeper fulfillment at play here, which is that humans are innate problem-solvers.
此外，人们的自我成就感也是原因之一，人类天生是问题的解决者。
That's why we love crosswords and escape rooms and figuring out how to explore the bottom of the ocean.
这也是为什么我们喜欢拼字、密室逃脱，思考如何探索海底。
Solving deviously difficult puzzles expands our minds in new directions,
解决不同的困难谜题，以不同的面向拓展了我们的心智，
and it also helps us come at problems from diverse perspectives.
它也协助我们以多元的观点去思考问题。
These puzzles come in various puzzle hunts, which come in various shapes and sizes.
这些谜题有许多不同的规格跟形式。
There's one-hour ones designed for novices, 24-hour road rallies,
有为新手设计的一个小时赛、二十四小时的接力赛、
and the puzzle hunt of puzzle hunts, the MIT Mystery Hunt.
还有寻宝游戏中的寻宝游戏，像是麻省理工学院的寻宝竞赛。
This is an event that takes place once a year and has around 2,000 people descending on MIT's campus
这是一年一度的活动，大约有两千人遍布在麻省理工学院的校园，
and solving puzzles in teams that range from a single person to over 100.
从一个人到超过一百个人的团队，成群结队地解着题。
My team has 60 people on it -- that includes a national crossword puzzle tournament champion,
我的团队有六十个人，包含全国性的填字游戏冠军、
a particle physicist, a composer, an actual deep-sea explorer, and me, feeling like "Mr. Bean goes to Bletchley Park."
粒子物理学家、作曲家、现实生活中的深海探险家，而我感觉自己像是“憨豆先生去布莱奇利公园”。
That's actually an apt comparison, because one year involved a puzzle
这其实是很贴切的比喻，因为某一年，
where you had to construct a working Enigma machine out of pieces of cardboard.
有一个谜题就是必须用纸板建构出可运作的恩尼格玛密码机。
Each Mystery Hunt has a theme. Past ones have included "The Matrix" and "Alice in Wonderland."
每一届的寻宝竞赛都有一个主题。曾有的主题像是“黑客任务”、“艾丽斯梦游仙境”。
It's often pop culture- and literary-based themes.
通常是流行文化或文学背景的主题。
And the goal is to find the coin that's been hidden somewhere on MIT's campus.
而目标是找到一枚硬币，它被藏在麻省理工学院校园的某处。
And in order to get there, you have to solve around 150 puzzles and do various events and challenges.
为了要解题，你必须解开大约150道谜题，并参与不同的活动跟挑战。
I had done this for about 10 years without ever dreaming of winning,
我参加了这个活动将近十年，从没想过要得奖，
until January of 2016, where 53 hours into a hunt whose theme is the movie "Inception,"
直到2016年的一月，在将近53个小时的破解中，主题是电影《盗梦空间》，
we haven't slept in days, so everything is hilarious ...
我们已经好几天没睡了，所以所有事情都变得很滑稽...
The tables are covered in piles of papers, of our notes and completed puzzles.
桌上布满了成堆的纸张、笔记、已解开的谜题。
The whiteboards are an unintelligible mess of three days' worth of insights. And we're stuck on two puzzles.
而白板上混杂了三天以来令人难以看懂的洞察。而我们卡在两个谜题。
If we could crack them, we would get into the endgame,
如果我们可以解开，我们就抵达最后阶段，
and after hours of work, in a magical moment, they both fall within 10 seconds of each other,
而在数个小时的工作之后，在一个神奇的时刻，两个谜题被解开的时间差距不超过十秒，
and soon, we're on the final runaround, a series of clues that will lead us to the coin,
很快到了最后“跑来找去”的环节，一连串的线索将引领我们去找那个硬币，
and we're racing through the halls of MIT, trying not to knock over or terrify tour groups,
我们在麻省理工学院的穿堂奔跑着，试着不要撞到或吓到观光客；
when we realize we're not alone, there's another team on the runaround as well, and we don't know who's ahead.
然后发现我们并不是唯一的团队，另外一个团队也在这个最后环节中，我们不知道彼此谁是领先的。
So, we're a mess of anxiety, anticipation, exhilaration and sleep deprivation,
我们既焦虑又期待，既紧张又缺乏睡眠，
when we arrive at the Alchemist, a sculpture in which we find ... this coin. Yeah.
当我们来到校内的炼金者雕塑，我们找到了...这个硬币。耶。
And in claiming it, we win the MIT Mystery Hunt by a tiny margin of five minutes.
拿到了这硬币，我们便赢了麻省理工学院学院解谜竞赛，仅以五分钟的些微差距胜出。
What I didn't mention before is that the prize for winning is that you get to construct the whole hunt for the following year.
我刚刚没有提到的是，赢得比赛的奖品就是你可以负责建构次年的整个寻宝活动。
The punishment for winning is that you have to construct the whole hunt for the following year.
赢得比赛的惩罚就是你必须负责建构明年的“整个”活动。
At the beginning of 2016, I had never constructed a puzzle before
2016年初，我从来没有设计过谜题，
I had solved plenty of puzzles, but constructing and solving are entirely different beasts.
我解过了许多谜题，但设计跟解题是完全不一样的大魔王。

But once again, I was lucky to be on a team full of brilliant mentors and collaborators.
同样的，我很幸运有一个充满优秀的导师跟创作者的团队。
So, from a constructor's point of view, a puzzle is where I have an idea, and instead of telling you what it is,
从一个设计者的观点，谜题是当我有一个想法，比起直截了当地告诉你，
I'm going to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so you can figure it out for yourself,
我留下了一列面包屑作为线索，让你可以自己发现它，
and have the joy and experience of the aha moment.
并享受顿悟时刻所带来的愉悦与体验。
This is another way of looking at the aha moment.
这是另外一种方式来看待顿悟时刻。
And what's incredible to me is that this experience,
对我来说这个体验最不可思议的，
which is very emotional and kind of almost physical, is something that can be carefully designed.
就是它是令人情绪高涨的，几乎是感觉身历其境的，并可以经过精心设计的。
So, to show you what I mean, this is a puzzle I co-constructed with my friend Matt Gruskin.
为了让大家明白我的意思，这是一个我和我的朋友Matt Gruski共同创造的谜题。
It's a text adventure, which is the old-school adventure game format,
这是一种文字探险，是一种复古的冒险游戏型式，
where you're exploring, going north, east, south and west, picking up items and using them.
你可以探索东南西北，找到对象并使用对象。
And you could get to the end of the game part, but you won't have solved the puzzle.
你可能到游戏的尾声仍无法解开谜题。
In order to do so, you have to recognize a hidden layer of information,
为了解开谜题，你必须发现讯息里的隐藏层次，
and the easiest way of seeing it is by mapping the game out.
而最容易了解它的方式就是把它绘制标记出来。
That looks something like this. Does anybody recognize what this is? Yeah, exactly.
类似这样。有人认出这是什么吗？对，没错。
This text adventure takes place within "Settlers of Catan." Who here knows what "Settlers" is? Nerds.
这个文字游戏发生在“Settlers of Catan”桌游之中。有谁知道Settlers是什么吗？
If you don't know, "Settlers" is a board game
如果你不知道，Settlers是一种桌上游戏，
where you're competing against other people to collect resources and use them to build structures.
你与其他人竞争收集资源，并使用资源去建设。
And within the text adventure, we hid information in various ways, with which you could reconstruct an entire game.
而在文字探险里，我们以不同的形式藏起信息，通过这样的方式，你可以重新架构整个游戏。
You could figure out the roads, the cities, the towns, the resources, the numbers on the tiles, even the dice rolls.
你可以找出道路、城市、城镇、资源、瓷砖的数量、甚至骰子。
You put all that information together and you could extract an answer in a way that's too complicated to explain right now.
你拼凑起所有信息，然后从中炼取出答案，而这方法实在有点复杂，一时难以解释。
But find me afterwards if you really want to know.
如果你很有兴趣的话，演讲后可以来找我。
But what this puzzle emphasized for me is the value of perspective shifts in inspiring an aha.
但这个谜题对我来说的意义，是引发顿悟时刻的换位思考。
So, in this puzzle, you go from experiencing the world on the ground,
在这个谜题里，你从一开始投入角色之中去体验故事，
as a character, to looking down on it from above as if you're playing a board game,
转换为由上往下俯视的观点，彷佛你在玩一个桌游，
and in that shift, you completely reframe all the information you've been given.
在这样的转换中，你会重新架构你吸收到的所有信息。
The hardest part of construction for me is coming up with a great idea for an aha.
对我而言，设计谜题最难的就是找出包装顿悟时刻的好主意。
Fortunately, the world is a torrent of ideas and information.
所幸，这个世界充斥着想法跟信息。
I've seen fantastic puzzles constructed out of the waggle dances of bees,
我看过美好的谜题以若干主题为灵感，像是蜜蜂跳舞，
and the remarkable coincidence that the 88 keys of a piano can be perfectly mapped to the 88 constellations in the sky.
以及钢琴的88个琴键恰巧可以跟天空的88个星座完美相呼应。
Once you find that out, you can't not construct the puzzle,
一旦你找到了这样的关联，你不能直接依此设计谜题，
and it's going to be about having the solvers make that connection in their own minds.
必须由解题者心领神会，找到其中的关联。
Whether you give them stars on a keyboard or play the celestial music of the cosmos,
不论你要给他们琴键上的星星，或是放一首以宇宙为题的天籁，
you're getting them there, one way or another.
你会留下若干线索引导他们。
Before long, you find yourself staring at a turtle, and asking yourself, "Is this a puzzle?"
不久你就会发现自己盯着一只乌龟，然后自问：“这是一个谜题吗？”
And also, staring at a turtle and saying, "I never appreciated what multitudes this contains in its shell alone."
盯着乌龟然后说：“我从没想过，光是乌龟的壳就蕴含了有这么多奥妙。”
This might be a familiar experience to you,
这可能对你是个熟悉的情境，
if you've ever been watching a TED Talk and asked yourself, "Is this a puzzle?"
你是否曾经看着一个TED演讲，自问：“这是不是一个谜题呢？”
I'm not telling. But what I will say is that puzzles can be found in the most unexpected of places.
我不会告诉你的。我会说的是：谜题可能在最意想不到的地方被发现。
That brings us back to one of my favorite puzzles of all time, which was constructed by Trip Payne.
这带我们回到我最喜欢的谜题，这是由特里普·佩恩所设计的。
And this time, I'm going to play it for you with the sound on, so get ready to name that tune.
现在我要为你们播放这段视频，开着声音，准备说出这首歌的歌名。
Who knows what that is? Yeah, "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman."
有人知道这是哪首歌吗？对了，《You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman》。
So you can identify that and seven other songs and clips, and then look at the videos themselves for clues,
你可依此认出其他七首歌跟影片，然后从影片中找到线索，
where the way that they are filmed and edited together plus things like the cutaways to the panel of five people sitting at a table,
这些影片拍摄跟剪辑的手法，加上线索片段像是五人小组坐在桌子前面，
which is reminiscent of a panel of judges, all of this can suggest "reality competition show."
令人联想这是一群评审团，种种线索显示这是个“选拔真人秀节目”。
And either through internet research, or from just recognizing this, you can get to the aha,
不管是通过网络搜寻，或是你就是认得，你来到了顿悟时刻，
which is that these clips are shot-for-shot recreations of lip-synch battles from "RuPaul's Drag Race."
这些片段是一个个镜头的重制模仿“鲁保罗变装皇后秀”中的对嘴歌唱表演赛。
So, why do we do this?
我们为什么要做这些呢？
You tell me, I don't know. So, first of all, it's really fun.
你告诉我，我不知道。首先，它真的很有趣。
But I think it also improves our lives in various ways.
我想它在不同层面提升了我们的生活。
Being able to solve puzzles, when I'm confronted with a challenge,
能够解开一个谜题，当我遇到困难的时候，
has allowed me to explore it from multiple perspectives before I lock in an approach.
让我能够先从不同的角度去尝试探索它，在我锁定单一方法之前。
Also, the process of solving is great training for working with a team, knowing when to listen, when to share,
此外，这样解题的过程，对共事的团队也是很好的练习，知道何时该倾听、何时该分享、
and how to recognize and celebrate insight and being able to construct ahas is a very powerful tool.
该如何辨认跟赞扬洞察，而拥有能创造出顿悟时刻的能力，是非常有力的技能。
Think of how powerful and exciting and convincing an idea is that comes from your own mind, where you make all the connections yourself.
当一个想法由你的思绪而生、你独立完成其间所有的连接，它可以是多么的强而有力、令人兴奋、说服人心，
So in January of 2017, after tens of thousands of hours of work, we finally run our Mystery Hunt.
在2017年一月，经过数万个小时的工作，我们筹备的寻宝竞赛终于开始了。
And it's a different sort of satisfaction than the quick high of an aha moment.
这与解完谜后的顿悟时刻所带来的短暂兴奋是不同的成就感。
Instead, it's the slow burn of saying something through perplexing abstraction, yet being understood.
取而代之的是，通过引人思考的抽象事物，慢慢酝酿地诉说着什么，但能够被他人所了解的满足感。
And when it was all over, in our exhaustion, we turned to each other and the world,
当游戏结束的时候，精疲力竭之际，我们告诉彼此并公告周知，
and we said, "We're never doing this again. It's too much work. It's really fun, but no more winning."
我们说：“我们绝不会再设计谜题了。这工作量太大了。这很有趣，但不许再赢得游戏了。”
One year later, in January of 2018, we won the MIT Mystery Hunt again.
一年之后，2018年的1月，我们再次赢了麻省理工学院寻宝竞赛。
So, we're currently I don't know how many tens of thousands of hours of work in,
所以我不知道我们还要工作几万个小时，
and we're two months out from the 2019 Hunt.
我们离2019年的寻宝竞赛只剩两个月了。
So, thank you for listening, I have to go write a puzzle.
谢谢你们的聆听，我得去设计谜题了。