Relating Sudoku back to customer service and communication - being skilled at something is in a way being able to do it in the most economical way. In other words even though it might take 10 years for a skilled person to do something, at least at the end of that ten years there is a quality product.

Finally today I was able to get a 'difficult' Sudoku out in one sitting. In a work environment, where you are paid, it might not be feasible to come back to a problem after a break - there may be a customer who deserves a reaction other than 'we'll contact you later' (That, I guess could come into the 'surprise them' basket). Also you may be being paid for your skill AND speed. The look on competitors' faces in the Tour de France shows how much effort those guys expel, purportedly the hardest physical race on the planet - for what... LA said yesterday the feeling of all the competitors in the last part, the race around the Champs Elysees ('cuse spelling), was very special. The race is then over - you can have regrets, but you live with it. So both in the extra-care customer service and the competitor, it's a case of putting all of your energy to use for a goal with a computable result. With that in mind, I set down to do a difficult Sudoku in one sitting. I knew from yesterday how easy it is to miss things, so that was a goal - after a periodic check to change blue into black (see below) - not to miss a thing. The Zen of Sudoku.

A longer-term goal is to remove the 'checking' element, and living with the huge mistakes to the extent of correcting them. And - once the learning curve is smoothing out - to appreciate the activity at a less-consuming level. In relation to work, a correction in my Sudoku method is not to zoom all over the place so much - which might be fun for me, keeps me amused - but is not easy to follow (this in turn brings in a removable personal stigma [perhaps] of thought-patterns phases out during repetive organised activity). For instance, you can either check the numbers in the first instance (ie writing in red the possibles) by looking at each number over the whole board, or doing each square at a time. I am of the opinion that each square at a time is the most accurate. You can also see at a glance where the checking ends - some squares are 'red'-ded, some are not - some need to be checked as they could or could not be finished. Such distractions therefore - as phone-calls or baby-cries - aren't so much of a burden, as once sitting down again there's that relaxing feeling of why, i've got time for some more puzzle.

Of course I'm talking of someone not-at-work - I've not had one of those jobs where doing crosswords and chatting in newsgroups is part of work for some time. About to try Kuzu drink.
A blend of kuzu, umeboshi plum pulp and ginger, it's not the same as the one in the book it rests on. Interesting taste - think it's helping my tummy relax, ;0)