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.

2015 AP Physics 1 free response 1a

Harris Proposes $50k Tax Break For Small Businesses

View All

Warren Buffett: How to Stop Losing Money When Investing

The first role in investment is don’t lose, and the second rule of investment is don’t forget the first rule. And that’s all the rules there are. I mean that if you buy things for far below what they’re worth, and you buy a group of them, you basically do…

Examples relating decimals and fractions in words

We are told to write seven hundredths as a fraction and a decimal. Why don’t you get some paper and a pencil out and see if you can do that before we do it together? All right, so let’s do it first as a fraction. So what is going to be the denominator of…

Refraction and frequency | Waves | Middle school physics | Khan Academy

When light is going through a uniform medium like the air, or as we know, light can go through vacuum, so nothing at all, we imagine it going in a straight line. But we see something really interesting happening here when it hits this glass prism. I know …

There's an Art to Getting Brilliant People to Surprise Themselves - Kevin Slavin of The Shed

I had a there were a couple questions from the internet, but I figured we could just start with kind of what we were talking about before about education in general. Sure. So, as you’re a dad now and you’re thinking about education, having now, you know, …

How Bicycles Changed Women's Lives | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

There are always consequences to what we create, often unintended. And some can cause serious problems. But sometimes, those unintended consequences are for the best. Nowhere is this more true than with our advancements in transportation. One early ride c…

Howard Marks on Investing in a Low Interest Rate Environment

How are return high returns achieved? High risk-adjusted returns, how do you get high returns with low risk? The answer, in my experience, is investors make money most safely and most easily when they do things that other people are unwilling to do. What…

The Fastest Way To Find Waldo

More Articles