# Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214 "2023-07-18T13:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 224
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4461 "2026-04-24T01:23:15Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Was this a team game? If yes, would giving the wrong answer have helped one of your teammates? Did your decision not to answer any more questions help your teammates? It was a team game. I figured that giving the wrong answer would’ve helped my team in general the same way it would’ve helped me in particular: by helping to, y’know, get the win. The decision to not answer any more questions didn’t help my teammates. > [@](#): > > Were you trying not to appear too smart? Not at all. > [@](#): > > Were the subsequent questions connected to the first one? I don’t believe so; I had no reason to think they _would_ be, and I don’t recall that turning out to be the case. > [@](#): > > Would knowing the subject matter of the questions help? If yes: spelling? Other language arts? Math? Science? Geography? History? The first one was grammar; I don’t remember what the others were, and I don’t think it’d matter. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4462 "2026-04-24T01:33:49Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Was this a team competition? > Were you competing directly against another person/team? > Did you want your answer to impact your competition? Well, it was my team against another team — in a question-answering competition — and I answered with the goal of ‘impacting’ the competition by, uh, _winning_ it, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4463 "2026-04-24T01:39:17Z")
Was this a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” style game? Or something similar where you had to choose between quitting early and keeping your current winnings, or risking them by answering more questions? Did accidentally giving the right answer reveal to you that you didn’t know the material as well as you thought you did? Were other people on your team able to answer the follow-up questions that you didn’t answer? Did they? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4464 "2026-04-24T01:42:18Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Was this a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” style game? Or something similar where you had to choose between quitting early and keeping your current winnings, or risking them by answering more questions? Not really. I mean, you were risking points by answering more questions, but not in anything like the WWTBAM sense. > [@](#): > > Did accidentally giving the right answer reveal to you that you didn’t know the material as well as you thought you did? Nope. > [@](#): > > Were other people on your team able to answer the follow-up questions that you didn’t answer? Did they? I honestly don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4465 "2026-04-24T01:54:50Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Not really. I mean, you were risking points by answering more questions, but not in anything like the WWTBAM sense. Does this mean you would be penalized for wrong answers? If so, would the penalty have been getting points subtracted from your score? And in that case, if you had successfully answered the first question wrong, would the other questions not have been asked? And if THAT was the case, was your team was winning, and you thought a tactic like that would help preserve your lead? (Answering fewer questions = less opportunity to lose points.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4466 "2026-04-24T02:04:51Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Does this mean you would be penalized for wrong answers? Well, yes. > [@](#): > > If so, would the penalty have been getting points subtracted from your score? Yes. > [@](#): > > And in that case, if you had successfully answered the first question wrong, would the other questions not have been asked? > > And if THAT was the case, But it, uh, WASN’T the case: those other questions would still have been asked, and still been worth the same amount of points; it’s just that my team would have had fewer points (due to me having given an incorrect answer, as planned) instead of more (due to me inadvertently giving the correct one). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4467 "2026-04-24T02:26:20Z")
(Also, I’d said right at the start that I knew they were going to ask three questions; it’s not that you _happen_ to be wrong about that being the case, which would be kind of nitpicky of me; it’s that I figure it _couldn’t_ have been the solution, as it got ruled out from the beginning.) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4468 "2026-04-24T10:56:47Z")
Were you hoping to influence what the other team did during their turn by answering incorrectly? Was this a multi round competition, where you hoped to lose this round for strategic reasons? Did you stop answering because you had enough points to win? Were the three questions the entirety of the competition? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4469 "2026-04-24T11:03:12Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Were you hoping to influence what the other team did during their turn by answering incorrectly? I was very much hoping _not_ to. > [@](#): > > Was this a multi round competition, where you hoped to lose this round for strategic reasons? No. > [@](#): > > Did you stop answering because you had enough points to win? Yes. > [@](#): > > Were the three questions the entirety of the competition? No. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4470 "2026-04-24T11:16:11Z")
Did this game have any sort of mechanism where players could decide how many of their existing points to wager (e.g. like the Daily Doubles on _Jeopardy_)? Did it have a mechanism where a losing team or teams got some sort of advantage later on? Or where a team that got too far ahead got some sort of disadvantage? Was this a competition between two teams? More than two? Would knowing more about the mechanics of the game help, in general? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4471 "2026-04-24T11:21:50Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Did this game have any sort of mechanism where players could decide how many of their existing points to wager (e.g. like the Daily Doubles on _Jeopardy_)? No. > [@](#): > > Did it have a mechanism where a losing team or teams got some sort of advantage later on? Or where a team that got too far ahead got some sort of disadvantage? No. > [@](#): > > Was this a competition between two teams? More than two? Two teams. > [@](#): > > Would knowing more about the mechanics of the game help, in general? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4472 "2026-04-24T12:30:28Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I answered in a way that made it more likely that I’d give a ‘wrong’ answer than the ‘right’ one This seems a little odd, so I’m going to push on it a little. Was there a definite “right answer” that existed at the time you were asked the question? Were you being asked to make a prediction about some future action / event? Or an educated guess about something that had yet to be revealed? (I know you said this was a grammar question, not a math question, but, for instance, something like “predict whether the teacher will draw a white or black marble from the jar” would be an example of the first question-type, and “estimate how many marbles are in the jar” would be an example of the second.) Since this happened in school, can we take it as a given that there was something you and the other students were supposed to learn or review by playing this game? If yes: was your strategy consistent with this learning goal? Or did it subvert it in some way? Did anybody get mad at you? If so: teacher? students on the other team? students on your own team? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4473 "2026-04-24T12:34:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I figured that giving the wrong answer would’ve helped my team in general the same way it would’ve helped me in particular: by helping to, y’know, get the win. Did getting the right answer help or hinder your team’s chances of winning? Was there a time component to the scoring? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4474 "2026-04-24T12:35:20Z")
Was there a buzzer involved? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4475 "2026-04-24T14:45:47Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > This seems a little odd, so I’m going to push on it a little. Honestly, I was getting ready to call it solved; it feels like you guys pretty much have it, such that it’s now just down to the details. But, sure: > [@](#): > > Was there a definite “right answer” that existed at the time you were asked the question? The person asking the question knew exactly what the definite right answer would be before she started asking it. > [@](#): > > Were you being asked to make a prediction about some future action / event? Or an educated guess about something that had yet to be revealed? (I know you said this was a grammar question, not a math question, but, for instance, something like “predict whether the teacher will draw a white or black marble from the jar” would be an example of the first question-type, and “estimate how many marbles are in the jar” would be an example of the second.) This is surprisingly tough to answer, but I guess I’d have to say that the question would’ve been of the “how may marbles are in the jar” type. > [@](#): > > Since this happened in school, can we take it as a given that there was something you and the other students were supposed to learn or review by playing this game? If yes: was your strategy consistent with this learning goal? Or did it subvert it in some way? I’d say I subverted the hell out of it. > [@](#): > > Did anybody get mad at you? If so: teacher? students on the other team? students on your own team? If so, they didn’t mention it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4476 "2026-04-24T14:48:11Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Did getting the right answer help or hinder your team’s chances of winning? Helped. > [@](#): > > Was there a time component to the scoring? You gain a set number of points for giving a correct answer before the cutoff, regardless of how long or short a time it took. You lose a set number of points for giving an incorrect answer before the cutoff, regardless of how long or short a time that took. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4477 "2026-04-24T14:48:50Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Was there a buzzer involved? Yes, there was. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4478 "2026-04-24T15:26:48Z")
Did you punch the buzzer and give some answer expecting it to be wrong; but by buzzing in you were able to stop the clock and give your team (or you) more time to think about it? Something like: We only have 2 seconds to get 3 questions right. I’ll just hit the buzzer immediately to stop the clock. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4479 "2026-04-24T21:58:30Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Did you punch the buzzer and give some answer expecting it to be wrong; but by buzzing in you were able to stop the clock and give your team (or you) more time to think about it? > > Something like: We only have 2 seconds to get 3 questions right. I’ll just hit the buzzer immediately to stop the clock That wouldn’t buy my teammates useful time to think about it; as soon as I buzzed in, I would (a) become the only one allowed to answer, and (b) lose us a set number of points by getting it wrong, prompting the questioner to move on to asking the next question. Still, I feel like there’s no point in waiting for you to land on the specific details; should I just mention what happened, or should I let this keep going? ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/4480 "2026-04-26T22:51:25Z")
Well good question on whether to let us in on it or not. I’m happy for you to reveal the answer, though I don’t claim to speak for others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=223) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=225)