A man who absolutely hated mornings bought a new, high-tech alarm clock that promised to be “un-ignorable.” It had a feature where you had to solve a simple math problem to turn it off.
The first morning, the alarm blared. The screen showed “2 + 2 = ?” The man, groggy and annoyed, tapped “4” and the alarm silenced. “Too easy,” he muttered and went back to sleep, waking up late for work.
That evening, he set the difficulty to “Medium.” The next morning, the alarm went off. “14 x 3 = ?” it demanded. He squinted, did some quick mental math, and typed “42.” The alarm stopped. He was impressed but still managed to hit snooze in his mind and was late again.
Furious, he set the difficulty to “Genius” before going to bed. “He won’t beat me this time,” he thought.
The next morning, the alarm clock screamed at 6 AM. He grabbed it, ready for a challenge. The screen lit up with a complex equation that looked like it belonged on a rocket scientist’s blackboard.
He stared at it, completely stumped. The alarm continued to shriek. He tried random numbers, but nothing worked. Defeated and wide awake, he got up, made coffee, and took a shower. The alarm was still blaring from the bedroom.
Finally, he got dressed for work, grabbed his briefcase, and as he was about to leave the house, he had a brilliant idea. He walked back into the bedroom, picked up the noisy clock, and put it next to his wife, who was still sleeping peacefully.
He leaned in and whispered, “Honey, it’s for you.”