Just to add another perspective, I really enjoy puzzles. I've been a programmer for about twenty years professionally in one form or another. However, while I f

Just to add another perspective, I really enjoy puzzles. I've been a programmer for about twenty years professionally in one form or another. However, while I find my puzzle-solving passion is helpful in a lot of programming situations, I do not find those skills per se necessary to programming. I should also add here that I do not like puzzles which have an excessively "tricky" answer. I like puzzles that make me think in strange ways. But for example I have an awful puzzle ("kuku ball") which is kind of a moderately complex lock-type puzzle. That in and of itself I find enjoyable. But for the Kuku ball, you've actually got to apply an enormous amount of pressure to get the locking mechanism to open. Literally people have needed to hit it with a hammer.