More often than not, I receive emails from fans all over the world. While most of them are complimentary, thanking me for maintaining this site and expressing gratuity for regular content, I also receive a complaint here and then (mostly addressing my English). Questions and suggestions fly in as well. One that stood out lately was a complimentary email from Agnes, where she also expressed her disappointment regarding solutions often not being included inside the articles. I have to acknowledge this, yet I’ve always felt the solution shouldn’t be handed out on a plate. In my view easy answer degrades the value of a question (or illusion in our case). Somehow I always disliked shortcuts in life. Perhaps this Spartan approach doesn’t work for some, but it certainly helps starting the conversation (comments section!). This also forces you to stop and think about the illusion for a second. After all, isn’t the feeling when you come up with the solution yourself – rewarding by itself?! Having said that, I have to admit many illusions I posted are still a mystery to me. They may appear beautiful or simple, but sometimes even I can’t see the answer. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy reading your comments so much! It’s one of the things that keep me going… Here’s a solution animation that may help with one of our latest posts ;)
A magician once said, “The difference between a grand illusion and a cheap trick is knowing how it is done.”
A great deal of the satisfaction of optical illusions is NOT knowing how it is done… or better yet, figuring it out.
If you must post solutions, please do so on a delay, as I do not want to cheat my brain out of the pleasure of figuring it out on my own.
I, too, wish you’d include solutions to puzzle problems. I’m not terribly interesting in puzzle solving, so if something takes me more than a few tens of seconds to figure out, I’ll just give up out of frustration. I’ve never really been one for games.
That’s cool! Once you watch it spin around, you can still see how it is made.
I’m amazed that people would actually take the time to criticize you about your English! Your grammar & writing are much better than many native speakers, and I wonder how well those who complain would be able to write in your native tongue!
Please just ignore them & thank you for the awesome site!
Speaking of E-Mails….
I am a first time contact, so it is nice to introduce myself. I agree with your viewpoint, here is the reason why… For many years, I have performed magic. I learned early on that even the easiest tricks can baffle people. In fact some of the these easy tricks keep people on the edge of their seats trying to figure it out.
When I was starting out, I disclosed several effects to people I really felt were interested. To my surprise, most of the time, what I heard was: “Is that all?” “That’s stupid, anyone could do that.”
What I would feel like saying was, “Well, just minutes ago, you felt this was great. Just because it is easy, doesn’t mean it’s stupid! I had you amazed, remember?”
What I did was say nothing, but I learned very, very quickly, don’t ever tell how something is done. After I adopted that policy (after about my second performance), I started amazing people again – I was happy and they were happy.
I think you should never disclose “how it’s done” and just keep us amazed instead! However, I understand that by doing this now, you would piss off your public and you would probably lose your following (and your site).
Anyway, sorry this was so long but I wanted to pass along my feeling on this subject. Thanks for reading this. Good luck in the future (by the way, I really like your site)!
John
It makes sense now
It’s the 3D chalk drawings on sidewalks that I’d like to see from more than one angle…
Sometimes, if I can’t figure out an illusion, and no comments help me towards a solution, then I would like a few hints. Illusions teach me about how I see the world around me. As an artist I value learning about perception.
Yours is fantastic.
Greetings from Argentina!
*yawn :O
great site. love the illusions! I’m one of those who’d rather try to figure it out on my own first…much more fun that way.
Very nice site, and a great collection. Thanks for making available to us.