ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hofstadter points

Hofstadter points are a way to measure the difficulty of puzzles and games. You know when you play a game or solve a puzzle and it gets harder at different stages? Well, Hofstadter points help us figure out how much harder it's getting as we go along.

Imagine you have a really big puzzle with lots of pieces. The first few pieces are usually easier to put together because they have big, obvious shapes. So we start with 1 Hofstadter point for the easiest part. As we keep going and adding more pieces, the puzzle gets harder because the pieces start to look similar and it's not so easy to see where they fit.

Now, let's say we get to a point where it's getting really challenging to find the right place for a piece. This is where we start adding more Hofstadter points. Each time it gets harder, we add more points. These points help us keep track of the increasing difficulty.

But why do we need Hofstadter points? Well, they help us know how much progress we're making. Suppose we start with 1 point and it takes us a whole hour to put the first few pieces together. Then, as we keep going, it starts taking us longer and longer to find the right place for the pieces. We might need 2 or 3 hours for a few more pieces. The number of hours we spend is like our collection of Hofstadter points. It tells us we're getting deeper into the puzzle and it's not getting easier.

In summary, Hofstadter points help us understand how difficult a puzzle or game is getting as we progress. The more points we have, the harder it is. They are like little markers that keep track of how deep we are in the challenge and how much time and effort it takes us. So, the more Hofstadter points we earn, the more we can brag about how well we tackled that tough puzzle!