Can you outsmart Fate and break her ancient curse? - Dan Finkel

If My Fate ever rests upon me having to do Math of all things, then I'll just roll over and accept it

To be honest, breaking the curse is the worst of the three best outcomes. Now that you and your family know the rules of the game, your descendants can go into the doorway knowing the rules, and how to win. So every 23 years, you get obscene riches or the love of your life at no cost at all.

Gotta say, I love that taking all rewards at the same time is impossible. Not only does it add spice to the riddle, but also just goes really well with the idea of the riddle, of beating fate and making your own choices

I break the curse, because fate might change the game or the rules after your family beats her enough times.

I like that every 23 years fate takes someone’s soul, and the 23rd card is called “the soul”

Fate: if you claim the six card, you will find true love! Our father, who is married and has us, a child: ...

I noticed the detail of fate pushing the tower card every time at the start of both games. In tarot the tower often is interpreted as catastrophe or destruction. Fate is using the tower to help destroy her opponent.

Fate: If you take 2, it will break the curse… Me: grabs it instantly

Break the curse! My family is already rich and famous from our fortune telling.

People are saying to just get all the bonus cards over several generations, but that ignores a part of the riddle: You're forced to play a game where only she knows the rules in advance. If you win, she's no longer the only one who knows the rules. So you risk having her change the game so that only she knows the rules again.

Gotta love how the Tower (16) represents disruptive change, upheval, and destruction, and that by offering it to your ancestors, Fate guaranteed their destruction

The answer is simple. Ask fate if at least one of your ancestors has green eyes. If the answer is ozo use the checkerboard to trap the pirate with treasure at his feet. If the answer is ulu use the gaussian on the ogre and free the paradoxes. Then pick the spot right before the first head to get the 2, look at fates shirt to find a magic bag and get the 10, and escape by means of a canon made by a race car builder to get the 6.

Love how poetic it is that the intuitive, most important first move for all the non-2 solutions is to pick 23, "The Soul". It's the highest prime and the highest value card in the game - a huge comfort and reassurance to have, and a most frightening prospect to concede to Fate on the other hand. In most circumstances, most would intuitively choose to keep "The Soul". This applies for solutions with no bonus, with 10, and even with 6. And then it hits you, if you want to take 2 and break the curse, you must give up "The Soul". Gave me goosebumps.

There's an old computer game called The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary, which is essentially a package of various minigames and puzzles. One of them was called Tax Factor, and it played by essentially the same rules as this game. It's how I know "start by taking the largest prime" is a winning strategy.

Yes! I managed to find the same 140 vs. 136 solution on my own and I broke the curse for my family. This is the first Ted-Ed riddle I've been able to solve on my own in a while.

23 years ago your father lost the challenge and died but today you, a 6 year old, must face Fate

yes, another riddle video! These are always fun, and I think this one was really creative, probably gonna become one of my favourites!

A lot of people are like: "Don't break the curse cause you know the rules and a family member can get wealth or love" 1. Well once you win, fate will know that you will tell everyone else about the rules, so he will change them 2. Fate can use other tactics, and your family might not all the time they might win, they might do a mistake! 3. He clearly states that fate is the only one that knows the rules in advace, so ya... if you win, then fate will just change it

If youre only going for the highest score and ignoring the special cards (2,6,10), the best sequence I came up with is 23,9,21,15,14,22,18,12,20,16 with a final score 170 - 106

Obviously breaking the curse, we already have great wealth from our fortune telling, and I'm sure we'd much rather have the peace of mind that saving our family and descendents from this game will bring rather than going for true love and screwing our children or grandchildren.