r/unpopularopinion • u/saketho • 20h ago
Riddles are dumb because you can find a million answers that are technically right.
Every fucking riddle is built on the idea of “being clever” and “thinking outside the box,” but when you do actually answer the question with a legitimately correct answer, it pisses off the asker.
Riddles only work well in things like literature, where you can set up a premise that hints the guesser towards the right answer. You can come with anything in our vast world that fits the technical restrictions of the question, probably find a million different answers too. But your creativity in this regard does nothing but piss off the asker.
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u/theblackfool 20h ago
I think this is true of some riddles, but not all. If the opinion was "I think a lot of common riddles are bad riddles" I would agree.
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u/Holy_Nova101 19h ago
These unpopular posts have been more leaned on "everyone" instead of just "a lot or generally." This sub is just kind of a ranting sub now for angry people.
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u/No_Juggernau7 18h ago
I know I feel like if a riddle meets his grievance, it’s because it was a bad riddle, bordering on not being a riddle but just being a prompt. A riddle shouldn’t have a thousand answers, that’s just not a riddle.
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u/CrabWoodsman 16h ago
I remember one riddle I was told in school where a guy's dead in the middle of a field naked, and the solution was that he was in a hot air balloon with others and took off their clothes to shed weight, then drew straws to see who would jump to their death.
I think a lot of them come from half-assed mass-market "riddle books" that grandparents used to get kids.
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u/NefariousnessBig9037 6h ago
I agree
A proper riddle only has one answer. That is the original idea behind riddles.
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u/JolkienRolkienRTkien 20h ago
What have I got in my pocket?
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u/SirNanashi 20h ago
An expired condom?
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u/pope-buster 20h ago
No. A used condom.
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u/Dqnnnv 19h ago
Is it also expired?
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u/pope-buster 19h ago
Nah, wash it out, and it's good to go again
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u/Frost-Folk 20h ago
What other question could you have asked the trolls to find out which is the one who lies and which is the one who tells the truth?
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u/Wenai 17h ago
Typically, the classic solution to this dilemma is to ask, "What path would the other guardian tell me to take?" and then choose the opposite path, as both guardians ultimately direct you toward the dangerous route.
However, I personally enjoy the Rick and Morty twist: "Have you ever fucked the other guardian's wife?"
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u/colsaldo 14h ago
Doesn't work.
If the guardian (#1) is telling the truth, he'll say the other guardian (#2) will lie and tell you to go in his (#2's) door.
If he's the liar, he'll lie and say that #2 will tell you to go in his (#1's) door.
You've not learned anything. You still have a choice between 1 and 2.
This took me far too long...and at this point I've no idea if I'm right.
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u/Martian8 14h ago
There are 2 doors: A and B. Let’s say A is the good door and B is the bad door.
There are 2 guardians: T and L, T tells the truth, L lies.
If you asked the question “which door should I take”: T will as A and L will say B. This obviously isn’t helpful because you don’t know which of T or L you actually asked.
So you ask “what door will the other tell me to take”:
Since L would answer B to the first question, T will answer B to this new question.
Since T answered A to the first question, L will answer B to this new question.
So the answer to the second question is always the wrong door, B, no matter which guardian you ask. So you take the opposite door which is guaranteed to be the good door.
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u/zerolifez 8h ago
The premise of this riddle is you ask both at the same time. Your example only has guardian 1 answering, what about the answer from guardian 2.
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u/IrrationalDesign 40m ago
The premise is not that you have to ask both guardians, at least you don't ask them a question each. You only need one guardian and one question.
u/colsaldo maybe this explanation helps, because you dont need to ask both.
The actual premise is that your single question has the question to both guardians baked into it.
'what would the other guardian say is the real door?' has an answer go through both the lying and the truth telling guardian (since you're asking the question to one, but the question contains the response of the second guardian). You don't need to know which guardian is which since you know the answer you get has both the responses of a truth teller and a liar, which means the answer is a lie.
You don't need to know if the first guardian is lying about the truthtelling guardian, or whether the first guardian is telling the truth about the liar guardian, it's 'truth + lie' in both cases.
Asking a liar to imitate a truth teller results in a liar. Asking a truth teller to imitate a liar also results in a liar.
If he's the liar, he'll lie and say that #2 will tell you to go in his (#1's) door
You had this part wrong, he'll lie and tell you that #2 will tell you to go in door #2, because he's lying. The answer is #2 in both cases, which means door 1 is the right one.
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u/Throwaway070801 12h ago
No, if he's the liar he'll lie and tell you to go in the (#2's) door, because the truthteller would tell you to go in the (#1's) door.
Either way, you learn which is the wrong one.
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u/Flimsy-Preparation85 19h ago
There are 2-3 variations of the same question, but it's still the same question really.
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u/Frost-Folk 19h ago
Yes but what would the other one say?
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u/slugsred 19h ago
I'd just ask them something subjective like "is ice cream good?" and guess. 50/50 baby let's goo
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u/LinesLies 19h ago
The problem I have often seen with this one is that the riddle is set up wrong. If one of the trolls explains the rules then the whole riddle falls apart.
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u/Murky_Cricket1163 15h ago
"Well, in that case he goes up to the smallest guard and says, “Tell me which is the door to freedom if you don’t want to see the colour of your kidneys and incidentally I’m walking through it behind you, so if you’re trying for the Mr Clever Award just remember who’s going through it FIRST.'"
Pratchett knew his way through these things.
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u/Schizo-Mem 5h ago
Funnily, you can ask "Which door would you show if I would ask you which door is safe?", and it works too
Even works as an answer if you change premise so that there's only one guardian who is either liar or knight, not two of them
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/Frost-Folk 19h ago
That's your one question? How in the hell is that going to tell you where to go? Also, how would they know your name?
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u/driu76 19h ago
The one that tells the truth would say "I don't know," and the one that lies would try to guess. I assume that's the logic.
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u/Taewyth 19h ago
What if the one that tells the truth give your name and the one who lies tell you he doesn't know ?
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u/driu76 19h ago
Well, I wouldn't say it's the perfect question, just that I believe that would be the logic on why they would ask that. If you didn't know the trolls, and there was no indication that they could possibly know your name, then it would be a good question because the truth would be that neither troll knows the answer. This would lead the truthful one to respond that they don't know, and the untruthful one to try to guess or otherwise claim they know it.
It's similar thinking to the old logician puzzle where a waiter asks a group if everyone knows what they want to drink: first person says "idk", second person says "idk", third person says "idk", and the fourth says "yes" - the first, second, and third people know what they individually want to drink, but they cannot know if the other individuals know what they want until they say so. The last person knows what they want, and knows that if any of the other 3 did not know what they wanted then they would have said "no", so they can confidently respond with "yes".
A question about an immutable fact would be more reliable for the troll situation. I can't think of any good ones off the top of my head other than like math or something, though, which has the issue of whether or not trolls could do math lol.
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u/Holy_Nova101 19h ago edited 10h ago
I mean, proper Riddles only really have one logical answer. Bad or fast made riddles definitely have more than one answer.
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u/ganked_it 19h ago
Give some examples
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u/athomsfere 19h ago
Riddle: The more you take, the more you leave behind.
Correct answer supposedly is footsteps.
Why not photographs?
What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Correct Answer: A Penny. But why not also a brown snake, especially when a penny is copper. Or a brown eel?
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u/flamableozone 19h ago
How are you leaving behind photographs? Do you mean, idk, like polaroids that you drop on the ground as you take them?
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u/athomsfere 19h ago
Sure.
But I also have like 10tb of photos that I could share, print, passion etc.
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u/ProtectionUnusual 19h ago
Metaphorically, which is a fair answer because a lot of riddles use metaphor too
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u/flamableozone 18h ago
What's the metaphor here? In what way, metaphorically, are you "leaving behind" photographs?
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u/Helpful-Pair-2148 18h ago
Once the picture is taken you go along your way in life but the picture remains there. That's "leaving behind".
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u/flamableozone 18h ago
The picture...remains there? Normally I take the film (or SD card) *with* me when I leave somewhere, I don't tend to leave the photo behind, I keep it with me, whether on my phone, in the cloud, or on film.
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u/Helpful-Pair-2148 18h ago
Nobody actually keeps all their pictures with them at all time lol, you are just trying really hard not to agree with the statements for some reason.
From your examples, only the pictures kept on your phones could be considered "not left behind" but most people eventually move their pictures to a more permanent storage (eg: leave behind).
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u/flamableozone 18h ago
That doesn't really make sense, but sure - I guess any time you don't have something with you you're leaving it behind, so technically anything you buy - unless you have it with you forever - is something that you leave behind by that metric. And everybody you ever meet you leave behind. Not *really* the way that it's used generally, but I suppose if you're going to stretch definitions as far as they go, everything does get left behind to some degree.
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u/ProtectionUnusual 18h ago
I’ve “lost” many photos digital and physical. Is the concept of not being in possession of photos foreign to you?
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u/colsaldo 14h ago
Pedantry again.
If it's digital, it's not really a photograph. It's an image. Photographs are physical.
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u/flamableozone 14h ago
Okay, so when you take a photograph, do you leave it behind? I'm pretty sure that's not really how people typically behave, they take a photograph and then...take it with them. They don't leave the photograph behind.
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u/ScatterCushion0 3h ago
When you die you leave it behind you. If you move house and a photo has fallen between floorboards you leave it behind.
There are as many ways to leave physical photos behind as they are ways to be pedantic
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u/oyvasaur 2h ago
I agree it is sort of a possible answer, but if I was asked the riddle and told the answer is photographs, I’d thing «eh yeah okay, sure, I guess». But with footsteps, I think «aaaaah, of course!»
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u/Moose_M 18h ago
The more ice cream and chocolate milk I take the more shits I leave cause I'm lactose intolerant.
Checkmate atheist, riddles are useless cause I came up with an answer
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u/KeiranG19 18h ago
Given it's supposed to be the same thing that you take and leave behind, the "chocolate" in your milkshakes is actually shit.
Yahtzee theist, you're bad at riddles.
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u/colsaldo 14h ago
Hate to be a pedant but we leave behind footprints
Ok, I don't really hate being a pedant.
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u/Ragtime-Rochelle 17h ago
Pennies can also be red, orange, black or green depending on how old it is.
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u/Espeonisbesteevee 12h ago
Isn’t the penny one a head, a tail, brown, but no body tho? I haven’t seen or heard it being no legs until seeing this comment.
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u/athomsfere 11h ago
I just googled something like "popular riddles".
I'm not riddle expert because like the OOP I find them infuriating most of the time.
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u/ExpensivePanda66 8h ago
Why not photographs?
Because I don't leave them behind. Footsteps fits much better as an answer.
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u/Xepherya 12h ago
Photographs is dubious. I would say “opportunities” works though. Taking one opportunity means forgoing many more (connections to that opportunity).
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u/yeah-this-is-fine 19h ago
I feel like you’re making a valid criticism of a lot of riddles, but doesn’t that just separate bad riddles from good riddles? A good riddle will only have a single good answer.
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u/Dinasourus723 19h ago
Some lateral thinking problems are difficult for me, and I don't think I'm dumb, just not a genius lol. In one of my college classes when the professor made everybody do a list of lateral thinking questions, people got stuck on around half of them. Some lateral thinking questions I can only think of one or none, maybe because I'm not that smart lol.
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u/No_Juggernau7 19h ago
I think you’re thinking of bad riddles. A riddle isn’t meant to have thousands of answers, that would just be a question or a prompt. A riddle should feel impossible to answer, until you kalaidascope the information just right, and the information clicks to you.
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u/Notquite_Caprogers 17h ago
I love using riddles in DND for this exact reason. I as dm don't have an answer in mind when I make them up and accept whatever the funniest response is
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u/CinnaStack 19h ago
No one who is genuinely asking you to solve a riddle is actively trying to piss you off unless they're immature and they think they're better than you. Riddles are supposed to make you think. If you come up with an answer that works with the riddle that is a good thing.
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u/abletable342 18h ago
Usually I see this opinion when someone ignores an important detail in the riddle or misunderstands the reality of something. Lots of things can fit when you are wrong.
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u/Jormungandr315 17h ago
It seems you are confusing ASSHOLES with RIDDLES.
You see, the RIDDLE isn't mad you thought outside of the box with an unconventional answer (because that is the POINT of a riddle).
It's the ASSHOLE telling the riddle getting mad you thought outside of the box with an unconventional answer. Yeah. Everyone hates assholes.
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u/budgetboarvessel 19h ago
Whenever i came up with such an answer, the riddle asker was chill about it.
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u/Learning-Power 17h ago
I am a gate you cannot open, I am in a bottle but should not be drunk. What am I?
(I came up with this one randomly the other day)
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u/SABatoge2002 17h ago
The worst riddle I was stumped on was "If you aim to give us a shot, we'll riddle you"
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u/GuyYouMetOnline 16h ago
The problem isn't riddles. The problem is bad riddles.
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u/saketho 8h ago
I fucking loved that. thank you for sharing!!
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u/GuyYouMetOnline 7h ago
XKCD is great, and there seems to be a relevant one for almost anything.
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u/saketho 6h ago
It’s given me a nice (but dumb) idea for r/beatlescirclejerk. brb
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u/king-of-new_york 14h ago
That's why I like The Green Glass Door. There's thousands of possible and acceptable answers.
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u/carjunkie94 14h ago
Sometimes there's one answer that's definitely the best. But most of the time I agree.
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u/GrimmRadiance 14h ago
This is partially why I cannot stand the Professor Layton games. Sometimes there is clearly more than one answer. The other half of that is localization issues leading to incorrect phrasing for the question or prompt.
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u/LtShortfuse 13h ago
That's part of the fun, imo. Depending on someone's train of thought, you'll get a different answer that may still answer the question.
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u/makawakatakanaka 13h ago
What you’re describing is not a riddle. A true riddle is meant to be an obvious answer hidden by strange phrasing.
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u/Probablynotabadguy 19h ago
Queue the stupid "well that's an answer, but not the answer".
Also shoutout to all the bad D&D DMs that will make a riddle as a puzzle for the party to solve in order to feel smuggly superior and only allow thier one 'right' answer.
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u/haanalisk 18h ago
I love riddles as a dm. Whatever the party comes up with is the answer! Everyone wins. Small puzzle with small stakes and party gets to feel smart. I don't even have to have the answer! (usually I have a "right" one in mind, but as long as it makes sense it's good)
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u/TGWsharky 18h ago
This reminds me of the time my sister complained about NYT connections game because some of the terms can fit into several categories. The point is that multiple answers could work. And you need to try and figure out what the author/asker meant. If your response to giving the "wrong" answer is to dig your heels in and defend it, then I guess riddles just aren't for you.
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u/Material_String9014 17h ago
I understand your opinion, but feel that the only people that are against riddles are those that cannot solve them. That is why I abstain from answering them.
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u/nRenegade 5h ago
Because they're fun!
A man builds a house with all walls facing south. A bear walks by his house. What color is the bear?
It's something that sounds so ludicrous in context but suddenly it becomes so intuitive and creative once you find the answer.
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u/TheFriendlyGhastly 19h ago
I had a friend get angry with me for solving his riddle with a different solution than the one he knew.
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u/GakkoAtarashii 17h ago
Well?? What is it????
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u/TheFriendlyGhastly 16h ago
You have been poisoned. You have been given four pills, two red and two blue. You have to take one blue and one red pill to survive. If you take less than one of each, you will die from the poison, and if you take more than one of each they'll become toxic themselves. The only difference between the pills are the color. You are completely blind, and can't get any help from other people. How do you take the right dosage of pills?
Solution; his solution was to take the pills one at a time, break them in half, eating one half and throwing the other half over your shoulder. I didn't assume that the pills could easily be broken in half, so my solution was to find a mortar and grind all four into a powder, then eating half the powder. Depending on the pills, neither of our solutions are likely to work, but he was adamant that his solution was the only way.
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u/saketho 8h ago
Your solution is more likely to be the realistic one, pills do not have a uniform composition all throughout and neither was that stated.
Imagine a pill lying horizontally on a table in front of you. There’s the left side and right side. The left side has the medicine which will fight against the cold you just caught, and the right side will have a small dose of painkiller to eliminate your body pain. This is how all pills and all tablets are made, they do not have a uniform composition, sometimes there are important chemicals on one side and not the other. Thats why doctors and even the packaging of medication states “do not cut in half, swallow whole.”
His logic of taking halves is outrageous. Your solution is definitely much more likely to allow survival (even though it is still left up to chance).
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u/Appropriate_Dig3843 8h ago edited 8h ago
I agree. Most riddles just have absolutely ridiculous solutions and there are a million other possible solutions. That’s true even for famous riddles.
Example:
What stands on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon and 3 legs in the evening?
Solution: A human.
Explanation: morning doesn’t actually mean morning but refers to the time when the person is still a baby. Evening doesn’t actually mean evening but refers the time when a person is old. Leg doesn’t actually mean leg but can be a leg, an arm or a walking stick.
Therefore according the the riddle “human” is the correct solution because humans crawl around when they are young, then walk around on 2 legs when they are adults and in the end walk around with a walking stick when they are old.
In reality of course if you allow yourself to change the definition of words however you want to, you could come up with a million other solutions, many of them less ridiculous than the “correct” one.
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