Rube Goldberg (1883–1970) was an American cartoonist, best known for depicting contraptions that performed the simplest of tasks in comically complicated ways. His “inventions” were decidedly tongue-in-cheek; nobody would mistake them for sincere attempts to solve a problem. Look a little more deeply, however, and Goldberg’s cartoons conveyed a serious message; they can be viewed as a warning of the danger of complexity in an increasingly industrialized world.
Many Fenn searchers delighted in the Rube Goldberg approach. Some placed the letters of Fenn’s poem in a grid, shifted its lines, and sought hidden words. Others counted letters and converted them into GPS coordinates. Some searchers explored anagrams and homophones, while others delved into historical or cultural references. Virtually all reveled in their creativity. That’s fine if entertainment was the goal. But if finding the treasure was the objective, this approach was bound to fail.
In any human undertaking, the best practice is to seek a straightforward solution. In other words, seek the solution that accomplishes the task using the fewest resources possible. This includes both human and material resources. Strive to accomplish the task with a minimal number of steps. The reason for this is obvious: Every time we introduce another element, we introduce another potential source of failure. It’s equivalent to adding another cog to a Goldberg machine.
What constitutes a straightforward approach in The Thrill of The Chase? Well, Forrest placed clues in a poem. The most straightforward way to make sense of his poem is to interpret it as any other poem. Tackle it just as you did in high school English class. Who is the speaker? Who is the audience? Explore each sentence with attention to subject, action, object, etc. Look up any words you’re not familiar with. Take the words of the poem at face value. Do not transform or mess with them.
And please don’t stray. Forrest authored subsequent books and hundreds of scrapbooks. He gave dozens of interviews and answered countless searcher questions. Extract meaning from those at your own peril. The poem contains 24 mostly vague verses. There’s already plenty there to misinterpret. Every additional source introduces more potential for error. Besides, none of those things existed when the chase was launched. Everything needed to find the treasure was in the poem.
I won’t belabor the point, so let’s go right straight into a summary: Keep it simple and focus on a literal interpretation of the poem. If you complicate the poem at all, or make assumptions based on extraneous sources, you risk creating an elaborate Goldberg machine. That might be a fun way to spend some time, but it’s not an effective way to find Fenn’s hiding spot.
