29: 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

The best jigsaw puzzle has 40,000 pieces, and when you finish it reads "GO OUTSIDE"

One thing I distinctly remember growing up was watching Dad in the front room, rain pelting against the window on a Sunday afternoon, a puzzle piece between his thumb and forefinger and a funny look of concentration on his face. I was looking forward to this particular challenge because of the opportunity to work logically from start to finish. No distractions, no time pressure, just persistence.

As you do I started out by tipping the entire contents of the puzzle box onto the table making sure not to spill any stray pieces on the floor. It took me the best part of an afternoon to sort out all the pieces into piles, but by the end I was ready to put things together. The puzzle moved quickly, starting with the edges and then the more intricate image in the middle. The best part about the puzzle was having help from my cousins and my grandfather when they came over, working together to create the masterpiece.

Something interesting happened to me completing this puzzle. It was the first time since playing video games I experienced the short-term dopamine that I was familiar with. Solving each individual piece was like a task accomplished, triggering the same areas of the brain centre that activated when I played Hearthstone. It was oddly active to solve the puzzle and I would often lose track of time. Very interesting indeed.