Simple Games about Individual Creativity

The aim of these simple games and exercises is to show how apparently impossible or absurd
problems may be discussed and solved by making evalutations and analysis in a way that is
not usually taken in consideration in classical problem-solving. They are not intended to rate
the most clever or intelligent individual, but solely to give some suggestion about how to
recognize limits and inefficiencies of "conventional" thinking.

Game 1

This famous quiz game has been developed by Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and
will help you understand better your style of thinking. The questions are not difficult: try to
think for a while before reading the solutions.

1. How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?

Correct answer: Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside, close the fridge. This question checks if you tend to
make simple things complicated.

2. How do you put an elephant in the fridge?

Wrong answer: Open the fridge, put the elephant inside, close the fridge.
Correct answer: Open the fridge, remove the giraffe, put the elephant inside, close the fridge. This question
checks your ability to consider implications from your previous actions.

3. The Lion King organized a moot for the animals: all the animals are present but
one. Which one?

Correct answer: The elephant. The elephant is in the fridge. This checks your memory.
Even though you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you will answer the next one for sure.

4. You have to cross a river, but it is populated by alligators. What are you going to
do?

Correct answer: You swim across the river because all the alligators are attending the moot. This question
checks if you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Andersen Consulting Worldwide, 90% of the managers who undertook the test
failed all the answers, on the contrary many children under 6 answered some questions
correctly. Andersen Consulting says this is the proof that many top managers have the same
brain as a 4-years old child!

Game 2

Link the 9 dots with 4 straight lines without ever taking the pen off the paper.
Game 3

Moving 2 matches from the following figure you will obtain 4 squares. One of these squares
must be larger than the other 3.

Game 4

There are 10 socks for each of the following colour: blue, green, red, yellow and white. There
are 50 socks in all. If they are placed randomly in the drawer (i.e., not in pairs or any other
grouping) and you have been blindfolded, which is the minimum number of socks that you
have to pick up from the drawer in order to be sure you have at least 2 socks of the same
colour?
In the previous situation, how many socks you have to pick up in order to be sure you have at
least 2 socks of different colours?

Game 5

Take a look at the following picture. There is a man holding a log of wood in his hand. What
happens to the log when the man opens his hand?

Correct answer: It depends on where the man is:

If the man is under

If the man is If the man is in
water...
standing on the space...
ground...

The log will

The log will NO
FLOAT to surface
The log will FALL MOVE because
because its specific
DOWN due to not subject to an
weight is lower than
gravity. force.
water.

The most common answer is that the log will fall down on the ground: this is actually suitable for most situations.
This test shows how easy it is to give the most obvious answer and thus ignore possible alternatives.

Now we propose a series of questions about apparently unsolvable or absurd situations. For
each of them there is at least one logical solution, but many more are allowed.

Game 6
You stand outside a room which is thoroughly sealed and insulated. Externally, in front of
you, there are three switches: only one of these turns the light on inside the room, while the
other two do not work.

You must discover which is the working switch. You may make as many attempts as you
want with the external switches, but you may enter the room only once to check your
supposition. What would you do?

Game 7

A man lives at the 10th floor of a building. Every day he takes the lift to go down on the
ground floor in order to go working or shopping. When he comes back, he takes the lift up to
the 7th floor and then climbs the stairs to reach his flat on the 10th floor. This man hates
walking and climbing the stairs, but then why is he doing this?

Suggestions:

 The man is not following a prescription from a physician or other people

 When it rains, the man takes the lift up to the 10th floor

Game 8

A man enters a pub and asks the barman a glass of water. The barman draws a gun and points
it at the man. The man thanks the barman and gets out.

Suggestions:

 The man is really grateful to the barman

 The barman is not crazy, on the contrary he is very intelligent

Game 9

A man dies and goes to Heaven. There are thousands of other people there. Everybody is
wholly naked and seems to be apparently 21 years old. The man looks around to see if he
recognizes someone. He sees a couple and understands immediately they are Adam and Eve.
How did he recognize them?

Suggestions:

 The people in Heaven have mantained human features, i.e. not only immaterial or
angelic features etc.
 The man talked to no-one