Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk Parody Asks if You Are a Genius
In his early career, Elon Musk did a lot of coding. Good coders must be clever — so here’s a puzzle for our clever readers.
We got this one from a post on X on April 13, 2025, by Not Elon Musk. This is identified as a parody account, meaning that the post was not from Musk. Still, it’s a hard one. Readers are told that “People with the right answer are certified geniuses.” The author did not claim to have solved the puzzle or give the answer. Here it is:
1+4=5
2+5= 12
3+6 = 21
8+11 = ?
So, are you a genius according to Parody Elon? What is 8+11 in this sequence? Parody didn’t give you the answer, but we will next Monday, here at GeekPlanet News.
Solution to Monday Micro Softy 51: Two Mechanics
Here is last week’s Micro Softy: Two mechanics were working at Discount Tires. The young squat mechanic is the biological son on the older mechanic, but the older mechanic is not his biological father. How can this be?
If you didn’t get the answer, you will be ashamed. Wait for it ….
The older mechanic is the young man’s mother.
We used this same hook earlier this year in “Monday Micro Softy Monday 22: Can There Be Two Daddies?” Take a look. Mechanics and surgeons are not always men. If you missed that one and this one, are you by any chance a hopeless sexist?
Here’s last week’s puzzle: Monday Micro Softy 51: A tale of two auto mechanics I recognized the two mechanics when I went to the garage… To solve Microsofty 50, about cutting a loaf of cornbread into eight pieces by making three slices, try thinking in three dimensions.
The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of GeekPlanet News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:
Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior manage to cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.
Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.
Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.
Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!
