Three Months In, and the Puzzle That Beat Me

This issue marked three months since I took over Premium Puzzles. It has gone faster than any three months I can remember.

The week before had been the quietest since I started, and I put that down to the season. The days are getting longer here, the weather is turning, and a jigsaw has to compete with the garden and the beach in a way it simply does not in July. I said at the time I would be watching to see whether I was right about that.

My sister asked the obvious question

I had been grinding through a 1500 piece puzzle and losing. A large section of grass and flowers where every piece was green and most of them were lying to me. My sister watched me mutter at it and asked why I did not just quit and do one I liked.

It stopped me, because growing up I could never quit a book once I had started. It did not matter how bad it was, I finished it. It was only in my late twenties that I worked out I was allowed to put one down and walk away.

So I went looking for a proper answer, and wrote it up: Is It OK to Give Up on a Jigsaw Puzzle?

The short version is that the pull to finish mostly comes from sunk cost rather than from any enjoyment still ahead. There is a well known experiment where theatre season ticket holders who paid full price attended more plays than those who got a discount, and they were not enjoying the plays any more. They were protecting money already spent. A half finished puzzle on the dining table is exactly that trap.

But a puzzle is not a book, and the difference matters. A dull book tends to stay dull. The hardest stretch of a jigsaw is usually the middle, and it gets faster as the gaps close. So the useful question is whether you are bored, which is a perfectly good reason to stop, or stuck, which usually is not.

I asked readers whether they were finishers or quitters. The replies split almost evenly, and a lot of them were worth the time it took to read them.

The rest of the issue

No new range that week. Instead I pointed people at New Arrivals and Back in Stock, both of which had a lot in them that had never had its moment in one of these emails.

Regards,
Mike