he used to do crosswords but the number puzzle was so much more compelling because it did not require him to have command of the increasingly esoteric knowledge that crossword writers inserted into the puzzles to show how wonderfully clever they were to all of the crossword aficionados solving the sudoku was about expanding his mind to the point that he could see the patterns and numbers in ways he had not seen them beforeand he needed to see things differently these dayseverything depended on it .