[Palindrome] how to win a too-long hunt

[Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>]

The hunt constructors are new this year, and in my experience
inexperienced constructors underestimate the difficulty of their
puzzles.  I always have, anyway.  When the hunt ends up too long,
instead of excluding the last batches of puzzles, as I think would be
the right solution, constructors start giving out hints like crazy.
Thus the team that has solved the really hard puzzles sees their lead
evaporate when the other teams get help.

How should one act in the face of such problems?  I suggest getting
lots of sleep.  How much we work on the early puzzles might not matter
so much as how alert we are later on.  Eric has often said that the
hunt is a marathon and one should not try to sprint through the first
few miles.  I suggest that not only is it a marathon, but it's a
marathon where one might get to ride the T for some of the miles, and
one should certainly not sprint before one finds out which miles those
are.

                                Ken