Why Puzzles Are the One Thing Artificial Intelligence Cannot Fake I have spent the better part of the last decade watching people solve puzzles. And now, puzzles are the only thing standing between civilization and digital chaos. Click Every Image That Contains a Bicycle Anyone who has logged into anything recently, and I mean anything,Continue reading “Genuine Intelligence”
Author Archives: Jack Rose
The Science Behind the Scream: How Psychology and Physics Conspire to Create the Perfect Escape Room Puzzle
There is a specific sound that escape room operators live for. It’s not the celebratory bell when a team escapes with thirty seconds to spare. It’s not the nervous laughter at the beginning when everyone’s pretending they’re totally fine being locked in a room. It’s something quieter and more electric than either of those. ItContinue reading “The Science Behind the Scream: How Psychology and Physics Conspire to Create the Perfect Escape Room Puzzle”
The Pinball Principle: The Magic Is Real. Just Not What You Think.
Every week people walk out of my escape rooms and use the
same word. Magic. I never correct them. What they experienced
was real. I built it. And I can tell you exactly how every
piece of it works.
What I Learned Running an Escape Room by Myself for 10 Years
In 2015 I didn’t know what a carpenter’s square was.
Ten years later I’d designed over a dozen escape rooms,
hosted thousands of groups, and built one of the
highest-volume operations in the northeast. Nobody
teaches you how to do this. You just show up and
refuse to stop figuring it out.
AI Is Killing Hollywood’s Monopoly, And Active Entertainment Is Here To Take Its Crown
Hollywood spent a century guarding its monopoly on wonder.
AI just handed anyone with a laptop the keys. The question
isn’t what passive entertainment loses next. It’s what fills
the gap.
The Power of Common Goals: What 10,000 Players Taught Me About Human Connection
Put fifteen strangers in a room with a ticking clock
and a shared problem and something interesting happens.
The job titles stop mattering. The loudest person in
the room stops leading. After ten years and fifty
thousand players, I have a pretty good idea of why.
I, Homer
A Homer is a fan who defends their team through every
losing season, every bad call, every broken dream.
That’s me. Except my team has no losing seasons.
Elegy for Gene
Being Gene’s grandson was kind of like being related
to a superhero. Strangers would stop me just to shake
my hand and tell me what he meant to them. I never
fully understood that until I tried to put it into words.
The Great Escape Room Pricing Circle Jerk (And How to Stop Screwing Yourself)
Look, I’m going to level with you. Most escape room operators are leaving more money on the table than a drunk businessman at a strip club on expense account night. And I should know, I’ve been that drunk businessman. Metaphorically speaking. As the founder of REACT Premium Escape Rooms in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, I’ve spentContinue reading “The Great Escape Room Pricing Circle Jerk (And How to Stop Screwing Yourself)”
Busting Grumpies and the Three Seashells
Primitive humans lived in caves and wiped their asses with their hands. What’s your excuse? Panic buying is trending again, and I feel equal parts empathy and amusement casually observing my fellow quarantine shoppers desperately squabble over packages of commercial grade toilet paper with the bunghole appeal of low grit sandpaper. It is possible toContinue reading “Busting Grumpies and the Three Seashells”