Joep Schuurkes (Posts about black box puzzle)https://smallsheds.garden/categories/black-box-puzzle.atom2023-11-26T10:50:53ZJoep SchuurkesNikolaSolving Black Box Puzzle 31 with data analysishttps://smallsheds.garden/blog/2019/solving-black-box-puzzle-31-with-data-analysis/2019-04-28T13:16:34+02:002019-04-28T13:16:34+02:00Joep Schuurkes<div><p><a href="https://twitter.com/workroomprds">James Lyndsay</a> has created a number of amazing <a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/">Black Box Puzzles</a>: tiny applications that challenge you to figure out what they do. (You can support him in creating more of these at <a href="https://www.patreon.com/workroomprds">his Patreon page</a>.) Two of these Puzzles, <a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/puzzle29/">29</a> and <a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/puzzle31/">31</a>, not only have a GUI to explore, but also an API.</p>
<p>And that gave me an idea. If you explore these Puzzles through their GUI, you start from the inputs. You try out different inputs in the hope of discovering a pattern in the outputs. And then that pattern feeds back into your exploration.<br>
With an API, however - and because of the nature of Puzzle 31 - it becomes easy to get the outputs for all possible combinations of inputs. Which means you can start your exploration from the outputs instead of the inputs.</p>
<p>Before I tell you how and what I did, three important remarks.<br>
First of all, I will be spoiling the solution to the Puzzle in this blog post. So this is the right moment to go and solve <a href="http://blackboxpuzzles.workroomprds.com/puzzle31/">Puzzle 31</a> for yourself first. Or at least go play a bit with it, so you have an idea what the inputs and outputs are.<br>
Secondly, I had already solved the Puzzle through the GUI a few months ago. So it was more of a "Can I find the solution this way as well?" than a "Can I find the solution?" thing.<br>
Finally, the code and the spreadsheet I created (linked throughout, also available on GitHub <a href="https://github.com/j19sch/blackbox-puzzle-31">here</a>), are not very clean. I thought about tidying them up, but my two reasons for not doing so are (1) laziness; (2) the way they are now gives a more honest picture of what I did.</p>
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