I am fascinated by coded messages but cryptic crossword clues don’t do it for me at all. > I say nothing (3) … The answer (EGO) becomes more obvious if you rep

I am fascinated by coded messages but cryptic crossword clues don’t do it for me at all. > I say nothing (3) … The answer (EGO) becomes more obvious if you repunctuate the clue thus: “I” = “say” + “nothing.” “Ego” (which means “I”) is “say” (e.g.) + “nothing” (o). Neat! Is it neat? The derivation is a complete non sequitur. Why would you think to add = and + operators randomly? “Nothing” and “o” are not synonymous. There’s no way to tell if you’re getting close to the solution, and you can practically justify any answer because the correct one doesn’t have a sensible explanation. It reminds me of how unsolved cryptograms like Kryptos K4 attract crackpots who see meandering patterns that don’t really exist.