Einstein's Puzzle

Conventional Wisdom has it that Einstein wrote this puzzle. You've probably seen it before. Look it over, but don't spend too much time solving it just yet. It'll probably take awhile.

There are 5 houses in five different colors.
In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
These 5 owners drink a certain drink, smoke a certain brand of tobacco and keep a certain pet.
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same tobacco, or drink the same drink.
The question is:   Who owns the fish?

Hints:
* The Brit lives in the red house
* The Swede keeps dogs as pets
* The Dane drinks tea
* The green house is adjacent on the left of the white house
* The green house owner drinks coffee
* The person who smokes Pall Mall raises birds
* The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill
* The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk
* The Norwegian lives in the first house
* The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
* The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill
* The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks juice
* The German smokes Prince
* The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
* The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

I am not going to show you how to work the solution. The solution is proven by checking your solution against the hints. There is only one possible solution. I'm just using it as a simile of life. Here's how it applies:

Gen George S. Patton is quoted as saying: "Know what you know and know what you don't know."

Five facts about each of five people. If you count them up by pairs, each man and his associated pet, smoke, drink, house paint and nationality form 10 relationships. This count results from pair counts of 4,3,2 and 1. This measures only the relationships within each house. But in some hints, he also makes reference to the house next door. Which mean the possible pair counts are 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2, and 1 for each 2 houses. Which means there are 45 times 4 or 180 possible pairs.

He gives 15 clues which means 15 of 180 pairs are given to you. You have 1/12 of the facts. But is that all?

This is the human condition. At best, we only know a fraction of all of the things going on around us. But if we pay attention and look deeper than the surface, we can refine our perception. If we find the patterns and make note of the relationships as we figure them out, we can fill out many blocks in the puzzle that is reality.

In addition, he also gives you all 5 colors, nationalities, pets, drinks and smokes. There are 25 total (5 times 5) but only 24 are listed in the hints.

One is in the question: "Who owns the fish?"

Some of you might ask "Why do I bother to write this?"

Those of you that read here often, Have heard me say this before. REALITY MATTERS! Our decisions are only as good as our information.

In government, in business, in school and in our personal lives, it is important to comprehend reality and understand the perceptions of others (as far as possible). Good decisions are the keys to creating success and success allows us to be survivable, efficient, prrofitable and charitable. And if we aren't efficient, profitable, and charitable we ought not be survivable.

Life is a puzzle. Go figure.

Einstein's puzzle, Go Figure It Out

Hoo-Hah