The Fastest Way To Find Waldo

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Here's how to become scary good at finding Waldo.

In 2015, data scientist Randall Olssen used all 68 of Waldo's hiding spots in the seven primary books to build this kernel density estimate. So where's Waldo really? He's here!

Now, there are more ways to connect these 68 dots than there are atoms in the observable universe, and that makes it very hard for us to find the perfect path for our eyes to trace across each page to find Waldo the fastest.

Olsen estimates it would take the 10 largest supercomputers on Earth more than 10 unvigentian times longer than the universe has existed to find the perfect solution. So instead, he used a genetic algorithm to find a nearly perfect solution.

This is how you start: on the left at the top of the bottom third, scan across for a bit and then jump up to the bottom of the top third. Move about halfway into the right page and then dive down.

If Waldo isn't there, check the very middle or the edges. Using this method, I've been able to find Waldo in an average of like 10 seconds per page. It's incredible! And guess what? Waldo has never once found me.

Inside The Hard Tech Startups Turning Sci-Fi Into Reality

Jessica Livingston's Advice For Founders

View All

Division resulting in decimals

So in this video, we’re going to think about dividing numbers where the quotient, the result of our division, might result in a decimal. So let’s say we wanted to compute what 5⁄2 is. In the past, you might have said, “Hey, 2 times 2 is 4, and then you h…

15 Power Moves to Take Control and Build an Off Grid Empire

Hey there, my friend. Let’s run away together. Let’s run away from the control of traditional financial, health care, and resource systems and take control of our own lives for a change. Now, the appeal of living off-grid has skyrocketed in the last few …

How Future Billionaires Get Sh*t Done

I think notebooks are great for ideas. I think like a well-managed to-do list is a software product that you need to adopt, and there’s like 80 of them. I actually don’t even care which one you adopt, but it’s like when I like tell something to founders a…

Jacksonian Democracy part 2

So we’ve been talking about the emergence of Jacksonian Democracy in the first half of the 19th century in the United States. We’ve been talking about how, in this time period, the vote was slowly extended to all white male citizens so that by the end of …

B2B Startup Metrics | Startup School

[Music] Hi there, my name is Tom Blumfield. I’m a group partner at Y Combinator, and today we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite topics: metrics and why they’re so useful for startups. So why are metrics important? First of all, it’s pretty …

“Let Them Scream Whatever They Want” | Marcus Aurelius on Panic

How should we act when people around us are panicking? And how can we avoid panicking ourselves? Panic gets us nowhere, as it is a state of emotional turmoil during which our rationality is thrown overboard. So when we’re faced with a wide variety of opin…

The Fastest Way To Find Waldo

More Articles