He’s a highbrow celebrity who has edited the New York Times crossword for over 30 years.

I bet he’s a five-letter word for explosion at parties.

When the guy went to college, he made up his own major: enigmatology, the study of puzzles.

And I think he would be extremely successful at developer events, should the whole crossword business not work out.

My friend Mike recently passed along this great interview on his 30th anniversary as puzzle editor.

Here’s what he says about these games:

Every kind of puzzle has its own appeal. I think, as human beings, we’re hard-wired to be problem solvers.

Crosswords are especially popular though, because they’re so flexible. They can be made easy, medium, or hard. They can be small or large. Straightforward or tricky. Modern or classic. There’s a crossword for everyone.

The pattern of black-and-white squares is alluring. As humans, we like to fill empty spaces. It’s curiously satisfying to fill in the white squares.

Solving puzzles is compelling to humans and here’s where there’s some good news: developers are humans, too.

A huge part of the developer’s job is finding creative solutions to problems. You can use this natural tendency to engage your technical audience, especially in situations where the competition for their attention is high.

Puzzles are one of the great ways to stand out at developer events. In that blog post, I discuss the best example I’ve ever seen, as well as how to make the most of the attention once you have it.

P.S. Take the letters in the noun DEVELOPER, rearrange two letters, and get something you may need to do to your 2024 events plan after reading my post.