[mckirk]

Since I generally seem to do fairly well in problem solving, that is exactly what I'm trying to figure out: Are these problems actually representative of an important skill that you need for general problem solving, or are they, through their nature of being man-made puzzles, actually in a realm of their own?

When I'm looking at some pattern that I'm trying to find a rule for in real-life, I don't think I'm running into the same frustration and in fact greatly enjoy trying to figure out rules for how things work (or so I believe, at least).

I think a crucial difference is that I know that the problems I encounter in real-life are only "as complex as necessary", and the data I'm looking at is a direct result of some process that serves a specific goal; presumably one I think "makes sense", as I wouldn't look for a rule otherwise. In contrast, puzzles are made to be complicated on purpose, and I suspect that annoys me subconsciously to the point where my brain complains about engaging with it. But it's only these kinds of "figure out the rules" puzzles, so there has to be another important difference compared to logic puzzles. Possibly the difference is: for the logic puzzle, the "meta-rules" for the problem are made explicit and I know the solution-space exactly. For the Bongard problems here I found myself thinking for example: "wait, is it always just two groups distinguished by single rule, or can there be dependencies on the positions of the symbols within the groups as well? What kind of solution am I even looking for?", and that also apparently frustrates me.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I've actually been trying to figure out why these kinds of problems get on my nerves for quite a long time, lol.

[formerly_proven]

Bongard puzzles are pretty much the same as the test matrices in IQ tests, which annoy me in the exact same way these Bongard puzzles do. If you'd ask people questions in the same manner these puzzles do, they would refuse to answer because they'd feel trolled. Arguably, that's the case.

[antlerboy]

They're closely related to Raven's Progressive Matrices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven%27s_Progressive_Matrices which are indeed the source for IQ tests. But the point of this all is that rationality works within a frame; Bongard games are just an illustration that the real problem of meaning and choice and acting in the world is the not-rational one of choosing a framing.