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Hello, and welcome to Hidden in Plain Sight, the podcast that I've been wanting to make for the past 30 years. I just wasn't aware of that until today. What's it all about? Well, we are here to dissect complex problems and find innovative solutions where you least expect them. So, why did I want to make this podcast? Well, I started my journalistic career in 1995. And ever since then, I've been figuring out ways to uncover stories and find answers, whether it's deep questioning, intense listening, meticulous research, and finally, that star-striking storytelling.
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And today, as 30 years ago, these are the same skills that businesses of all shapes and sizes desperately need to navigate today's sticky challenges.
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It's been okay for the big boys. They've had management consultants pouring in to tame their challenges. Whereas, if you're a small or medium-sized business, so you've got less than 150 members of staff in your team, then the price can often outweigh the benefits. So, what are we doing? Well, Hidden in Plain Sight is the podcast of Word and Mouth, wordandmouth.com. And what we do is solve sticky business challenges using journalistic might and zeal and integrity, and you'll be amazed at what we can unearth by putting our significant experience to the test. Anyway, that's the business side out of the way. Today, on episode one of Hidden in Plain Sight, we're diving into the 2001 film The Score. That's almost as old as I am.
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If you've not watched this film, it's on Netflix. I urge you to watch it. It's a brilliant film, it's a gripping film, it's a caper, a little bit of Ocean's 11 in there, but very much on the small scale. It's got three of the best actors of recent generations: Bobby De Niro. Uh, we've got a final bow from Marlon Brando. You'll know this guy from tons of older films, including The Godfather. Al Pacino as well, one of the most amazing actors. We've got De Niro, we've got Brando, and we've also got Edward Norton, who played a spectacular role in this, a real cocky chap. Um, Edward Norton, been in loads and loads of films and also, um, one of my favourite performances was where he played two different characters in the film, The Inside Man.
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Well, today, we're going to talk about The Score. So, De Niro's character is Nick Wells. He's a master safecracker on his so-called last job. He's got a bit of a cushy number going on. He runs a jazz club and he's had a career of notoriety. But this film gives us a real masterclass in problem-solving. We're going to look at how Bobby, otherwise known as Nick Wells, tackles a seemingly impenetrable safe using what he calls just physics. And then we're going to dive into how he navigates the treacherous human element that is, let's be honest, in any criminal caper, to ensure his plan succeeds, even when he's surrounded by counter-positioning and unreliability.
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In Act One, we're going to talk about defining the problem. This is about more than just a safe. So, The Score. This is a little bit like every great journalistic investigation. It starts by understanding the full scope of the problem. For Nick Wells, the target for this last job is a priceless royal sceptre locked away in the ultra-secure basement of the Montreal Customs House. This isn't just about cracking a physical vault. It's about navigating a complex system. This will start to sound increasingly familiar if you're a business leader. These are the kind of things that you face in your day-to-day, maybe on a slightly larger scale. The physical challenge for Nick Wells is this impregnable safe. Now, the safe itself is a challenge, but in Customs House, uh, the room that the safe is in is, is upgraded at the very last minute just before the job is set to take place with more cameras and infrared detectors. You see, the guys at Customs House didn't realise just how valuable the sceptre was. They threw it in the safe for safe keeping, but they didn't realise its true value as a French national treasure. So everybody's going crazy to make sure it's protected. This is the stated problem. Here at Word and Mouth, we use the POWER framework, which starts with the P, making sure that you fully understand the problem, that you're not just scratching the itch, that you're going straight to the root cause of it.
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Now, for Nick, this is where it gets really interesting because not only has he got to try and figure out a way to break, to crack this safe, he's also forced to work with an unknown quantity, Jack Teller, is played by Edward Norton. Jack is young, ambitious, cocky, clearly looking to take control. This is a very spy versus spy situation. He's been pretty smart. He had the chance to infiltrate Customs House, um, as a assistant cleaner. He posed as a mentally challenged janitor to get the job. And he's also in the very first blushes of his appearance as Jack Teller. Edward Norton is showing a real manipulative streak. He's an incredible role. He's doing such a great job.
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Alongside that, Marlon Brando's playing Max. Max is Nick Wells's long-time associate and fence. What is a fence? It's the guy that kind of stands in the middle to make the jobs happen, and then Nick will do them, carry them out. Max will get his share, and obviously Nick will come away with it, feeling pretty happy with himself too. A nice big wad of cash in his back pocket. Max though is now less reliable. He's deeply in debt to a mob boss. And he, uh, let's say he's not entirely honest about the value of this sceptre. Um, so Nick has been offered a certain pay cut, um, or should I say a cut of the proceeds, not a pay cut. I don't think criminals get pay cuts. But, um, he doesn't realise until later on in the film that he's dealing with a $30 million value on that sceptre. So Nick, um, is very keen to make sure that he gets a greater share of what this thing is worth when it's fenced to whoever Hoodlum it is that actually wants to get their hands on this priceless French treasure.
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Now, Nick's rule is about to be broken. He's got this motto, "Never steal from your own backyard." He lives in Montreal. This job forces him to break his own cardinal rule, adding personal pressure.
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So, how does this relate to what we at Word and Mouth do? Well, all of these things, you know, when you take into account Max being devious, Jack being manipulative, and Montreal being Nick's home. This is really like a journalist starting an investigation. You've got the surface story, which is the safe. We already know about the safe. We know the objective. But the complexities lie in the motivations, in the trustworthiness, and the hidden agendas of your sources and your key players, your colleagues, your competitors, your clients. Everybody's got an agenda. In this case, it's Jack and Max. But when we work through solving a problem, finding a problem, like any good journalist, we use due diligence. We control the controllables. This is what Nick does in the film, The Score. He initially declines the job, then only in exchange for total control of the operation, making sure that he kind of keeps Jack in his sights, and he negotiates a much improved cut of what the sceptre's worth. He's setting his terms, managing his risk. This is exactly what we do in our work when we are, I wrote a book called The Data Detectives. In many ways, that's what we do at Word and Mouth. We make sure that we manage all of the different environmental factors to make sure that we get our clients exactly what they need to solve their problems. We set our terms. We manage the risk.
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In Act Two, we're going to talk about the spark of genius, how Nick finds a solution to the safe problem. Can't wait to join you then.
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Welcome back. This is Act Two, and we're calling this The Spark of Genius because it really is just physics. And that is the hook here for how Nick gets to the bottom of the safe issue in The Score. How do you crack a state-of-the-art safe when your conventional methods, your tried and tested formulas are too risky or time-consuming, especially when you're dealing with heightened security all around you? Well, Nick Wells, who's a jazz club owner, finds his solution quite literally hidden in plain sight. This film, in many ways, was partly the inspiration for this podcast. And though the podcast will probably run for years because I'm obsessed with cracking codes and fixing problems, this really was influential in giving your ears the treat that they're having today. So, how did Nick decide that to fix the safe in the best possible way, it's just physics? Well, he's on the street, walking back to his jazz club. It's a cobbled street and there, uh, is a delivery of beer to his club. Now, what happens? Well, one of the barrels rolls off the truck and as it hits the cobbled street, it explodes. This beer keg is pressurised. It's not a random event. It's perfect timing. It's data. His mind is connecting this everyday occurrence to his monumental safe-cracking challenge. From a journalist's point of view, this is the power of acute observation. This is a core journalistic skill, being almost omniscient, all-seeing. Often, many people, crucial details are overlooked. But they unlock a complex story. They show us the truth. They help us to figure out the story that we should be telling. It's all about seeing the connections, and I've said many times before that this is about triangulation. So, physics in action, the hypothesis and the plan. Nick is realising that safe doors, because he's got plenty of experience in this arena, are incredibly thick, but... there's a chance that the top might be thinner or more vulnerable. It costs safe manufacturers a fortune, and really, you're more concerned about people getting in through the front. It's seemed to be the more vulnerable area because thinking goes, once you get through the numbers, once you get through that mechanism or that series of mechanisms, you're in, you're through the front door. Some of the best crime heists are where people go in through the front door. They've spotted something hidden in plain sight and they're like, there's no way. This is when I talked about The Inside Man. The criminals go through the front door, but the truth is anywhere but at the front of the bank.
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Nick is figuring out the top of the safe may be thinner, maybe more vulnerable. So his plan is to drill a hole in the top of the safe. But that isn't going to extract the sceptre from the safe. You would have to drill a very wide hole to pull that out. That's not going to happen. He doesn't know where in the safe it is. So he just needs to get access into the safe. That's part one.
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Now, he's looking at the schematic that his friend Jack, so-called friend Jack, has got during his travails working at Customs House. He's got a schematic. He knows what's going on in the room where the safe is. But how does he get the safe open? He's got a hole, theoretically, in the top of the safe. But then what? He still needs to get the sceptre out. So, flashback to seeing the pressurised keg exploding on the street. He sees above the safe is a sprinkler system. He knows that's full of water. He also knows that to create pressure inside the safe, he needs to fill it with water. This is resourceful. This is journalistic thinking at its very cutting edge. This is using the environment to his advantage. Nick is, is on with it now. And this is the, this is where the force multiplier kicks in. Water is largely incompressible. This is physics. By filling the safe with water and then introducing a depth charge or a test tube of, let's be honest, waterproof explosive, or at least contained, he can push that through the hole that he's created on the top of the maybe invulnerable safe. This is theory. I mean, he doesn't know for sure. He's, he's got a copy of the safe. He's got a fairly good idea as to how this is going to work. The force of the detonation from the explosive has nowhere to go but outwards. Where's outwards? Obviously against the door. He's fully sealed up the hole at the top of the safe. The water acts to transmit and amplify, science geeks are going to love this bit, the concussive force directly onto the door structure. This is, the structure is weaker because it opens up. It doesn't matter what is in the door, whether it's very strong. This is still the weak point from the inside of the safe. Explosives like nitroglycerine, I'm not advising anybody to try this. This is not an experimental podcast, but they produce thousands of volumes of hot gas. They contain their own oxygen, so they work perfectly well underwater as long as the detonator is kept dry. So, what happens? The door is blown off from the inside out. You don't get many safecrackers trying to crack the safe from the inside. It's elegant, it's efficient, and it's unexpected.
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So, drilled a hole, got the sprinkler system in there, got the waterproof explosive and the detonator all working in perfect sync. This is very similar from a journalist point of view to finding an unconventional angle or an overlooked piece of evidence that entirely reframes a story. Turns out that Nick actually had one of these safes in his garage. He is the ultimate safecracker. He's also a little bit of a James Bondy. I don't know how Bobby De Niro would manage this situation today, being in his 70s, but at the time, this is a 25-year-old film. He's got it all in hand. This is all about applying fundamental principles. In Nick's case, it's physics. In journalism, it's perhaps ethics, human psychology, working with your contacts, working with your clients, working with your colleagues, working with the competition. Maybe it's economic principles to dissect the problem in a totally new way. We've done this loads of different times over at Word and Mouth. BREADitation is a really good example where we had to deal with students not turning up for school in a timely manner. What do we do? We introduce something that makes them feel great about themselves. We bring meditation, but in a whole new light, called BREADitation. They get the dough together, they knead the dough, they leave it with our head chef in the school, they go to school, they get into class on time, they come out at the other end and they've got a beautiful loaf made with their hands. They take home, their parents go, "Wow, you're amazing!" And they get win-win. They start to come to school on a daily basis, on time. We changed the game for that school. It was amazing. So this is about, nobody would have thought, but we knew that kids were stressed, anxious. How do we get around the anxiety problem? Meditation seems like a perfect solution. Really, really funky music, really, really good way to get them in the good books with their parents. This was quite a, um, an area where, um, maybe a more of a deprived area, so, you know, having fresh food on the table is always seemed to be a boon. Amazing.
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That's Act Two. We're going to come back in Act Three, very movie-like, with Nick's problem-solving operating system, where we're going to get into the details of how he does this and how you can learn from what Nick learned so that you can score some big successes in your business. Back after the break.
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Welcome back. You are listening to Hidden in Plain Sight, and we are on Act Three, talking about Nick Wells's problem-solving operating system from The Score. Beyond the mechanics of this heist, because cracking the safe is only one part of Nick's genius. His true mastery lies in looking at the problem-solving process from all angles, essentially going to the heart of the problem before he tries to figure it out. He's looking to ensure his success, um, despite the unpredictable human elements he can't really manage. Jack, Jack is a maverick. So, his approach gives us, as journalists, and you, as business leaders, profound lessons. Nick is not rushing. Nick is putting in the time, he's putting in the hours. He's dozens of years in this job. So he knows what meticulous research and reconnaissance looks like. So, he's doing late night exploration below the Customs House, working out problems as they occur, very similar to what we do when we form a discovery process at Word and Mouth. Very different in that we're not necessarily hanging out late at night underneath Customs Houses, but nonetheless, he's finding access, so he's got that through the sewers. He knows how to get in without disturbing the scene. And meanwhile, Jack is handling the internal details by posing as a janitor. This is deep groundwork. This is what you need to do. You need to get your spade out, you need to start digging.
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Let's talk a little bit about information verification and source vetting. Nick doesn't take things at face value. He doesn't assume. I remember back at journalist school, I was told by my tutor Sandy Felton, to assume is to make an ass of you and me. And that's the last thing, especially when you're trying to rip off a priceless sceptre. Um, when advised that the job could be too risky, um, based on all of his evaluation, he confronts Max, who then gives him the truth and, uh, admits the true value of the sceptre. Um, there's also another scene in the movie when, um, Nick has a hacker associate called Stephen. He's caught by the guys that he's trying to get into Ironclad security. These are the guys who run the security systems at Customs House. Um, and the the guy that finds Stephen then demands $50,000 so that he doesn't, um, squeak. Great word. So, Nick is handling this. He's not leaving this to Jack, even though this is relatively speaking Jack's domain. Jack is supposed to be dealing with the security on site, and then obviously Nick is going to be the one that's, um, that's breaching it. So, uh, Nick is making sure that he's got full control of the situation.
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From our point of view, we are always verifying sources as journalists, you know, we're cross-referencing information, we're making sure that we talk to the right colleagues, we're making sure that we talk to your clients to get the best possible information. And going back to the triangulation again, we're making sure that the information we get from different parties, different sources, is correctly aligned and that we're not missing a really important part of that story. We also need to understand the motivations behind what people tell you. This is the situation with Max, when Max is like being fairly tight-lipped about the true value of the sceptre because he's got his own, um, interests to, to, to take care of, whereas Nick just wants the truth. Um, and this is so important as part of that deep dive into your business when you're facing a problem is what what is the real truth here? And this is why we talk so much about problem finding, not problem-solving. So many different ways these days that we can solve problems, but we just need to make sure that we can fully frame the problem, understand the problem inside out. Endless problem statements before we're confident enough to find a solution for the real root cause and not just a symptom of it.
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A few more to go. We've got strategic delegation and resource management. Um, when Nick is sceptical, I always get sceptical and sceptre mixed up because they both start with SC. Um, Nick is very sceptical about Jack, so he uses his associate, his very trusted associate, Burt, to intimidate, uh, Jack, but Jack fights back. Not Jack Black. Um, this is Jack from the film The Score. Um, and then Burt later comes in as a decoy, um, rubbish van driver. Um, Nick is using Stephen to hack into Ironclad. He knows who is good for what. And that is so important when we're solving business problems. We know the stakeholders we need to talk to, we know their strengths, we know their challenges, we know their agendas, and before we go in there, we're fully apprised with what we need to know from these people and we know that ultimately they want the best for, first of all, themselves, but obviously the organisation with which they're associated.
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There's adaptability under pressure. We always get this as journalists, you know, breaking news from time to time changes the story. We have to adapt. We have to verify new information super quickly and potentially change angles, all while making sure that we are accurate in everything that we say in this role. And that's with Nick, when the Customs House adds more security, the lasers and the extra cameras, this, um, kind of gets this timetable thing to be moved up the priority list. He, he knows that he needs to get in quick because all of a sudden the sceptre's going to be gone and all of this effort is going to be wasted. He doesn't panic though. He adjusts the plan, which is exactly what we do as journalists, which is exactly how we offer the service to our business partners who want to solve problems.
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We, as journalists, anticipate betrayal. Um, we, we, when we say betrayal, we mean betrayal by information. We always consider the what ifs. What if for whatever reason, uh, we're not able to get to the, uh, key customer who holds the keys to a lot of the information. We're like, what if this person doesn't turn up? What if we, somebody's tight-lipped for whatever reason, we can't get the information from them? What if, um, the data that we need is not available? What if, um, somebody, um, is frustrated by what we're trying to do? Management consultants don't necessarily have a great name. What if they compare us to them and go, oh, Jesus, I don't want to get involved with this. They're after my job or they're wanting to cost cut. You know, there's, we need contingency plans. We need to think what's the plan B, what's the plan C, what's the plan D? How do we get the information that our business partners need? For Nick, this was about understanding human nature, a super critical skill for journalists, business leaders, and safe crackers.
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It's Nick's masterstroke in the film The Score. He knows Jack is hungry. He knows he's untrustworthy. So he plans for the double-cross. It's a beautiful part of the film. Please watch it. He doesn't let Jack be part of the handoff of the sceptre with Max. Why? Because there's zero trust in this. As far as Nick goes, Jack is getting access to the building, but he knows, he gets the sense that he's not, everything's not going to go smoothly. When Jack finds Nick in the basement of Customs House, which is where the safe is, after Nick has got the sceptre out of the safe, Jack holds him at gunpoint. He takes what he thinks is the sceptre case. But Nick has already outmanoeuvred him. Uh, Nick gets on the phone after Jack thinks he's home and dry with this case, he thinks he's got $30 million in his back pocket. He has no intention of having anything to do with Max and certainly nothing to do with Nick. Nick gets a call from Jack, and Jack wants to smooth things over, which is ridiculous. I don't know how Nick knows that Jack's going to call him, but Nick on the phone suggests to Jack that he takes a look into what he thinks is this sceptre case, which actually turns out to be a scrap metal decoy. Nick has always owned this scene. He has the real sceptre. He knew that something was going to happen where he was going to have to give this thing away, but he never did. And this is all about the what ifs. Please plan for contingency. And you can do that proactively before a problem even crosses your horizon. The what ifs are great. We've talked about the Five Whys. Why do this? Well, because this might happen. What if that happens? Blah, blah, blah, blah. This is brilliant. Five Whys, so important.
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Nick's success, you see, isn't just about physics, though we started the episode talking all about it. It's rigorous, it's almost a journalistic approach to every facet of the problem. What did we say? Exhaustive research, critical evaluation of information and people, strategic planning, brilliant improvisation based on observation, and most importantly of all, anticipating the points of failure, especially human ones. This was The Score, but this could so easily be the service that we at Word and Mouth provide to our clients. Just please don't get us to crack any safes. Not quite there yet.
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So, we're finishing up. Thank you for your time and your patience, and we hope that you've enjoyed today, the first episode of Hidden in Plain Sight. What can we take away as business leaders? Or, in fact, anybody, maybe you're just looking for a job, or maybe you're facing some sort of complex challenge at home. What can we learn from Nick Wells and the inspired storytelling in The Score?
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First thing first, define the whole problem space. Don't just follow your nose. Don't just think about the technical challenge, which in Nick's case was the safe. Understand everything that's happening in the orbit of what you believe to be the main challenge: the human dynamics, the hidden agendas, and the external pressures. If you're a business, obviously, you need to be thinking about costs. You need to be thinking about colleagues. You need to be thinking about your customers and, equally, your suppliers. How are you going to work with these guys? Sometimes these are the people who have the answers to the questions. You've never even thought about asking them. Make sure that you understand fully all the environmental factors.
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Number two, observation is your superpower. So, solutions are often inspired by unrelated observations. In this case, Nick finds his solution for blowing the safe wide open by witnessing that beer keg exploding through the pressure. You need to be cultivating an ability to see connections others miss. Read widely. Don't read in your subject. Don't read in your domain. Look elsewhere. Go to random events, take walks, have more showers. These are where epiphanies live.
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You need to question everything. You need to verify everyone. When the stakes are high, if your business is facing or a chance of being imperilled, don't assume trust. Earn that trust. Plan around its absence. This is really just about being comfortable in uncertainty. And that's exactly what we do. It's like starting a jigsaw when all of the pieces are around, you're like, I'm never going to do this. And eventually, step by step, you start to see patterns emerge, and that's where the magic lies.
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Number four, you've got to control the controllables. Wherever possible, you've got to identify aspects of the problem you can influence directly and focus your energy there because, a bit like stoicism, we can't control what people think, what people do, and how they behave. But we do know that within our circle of competence, there are many things that we can tackle. So, make sure, like Nick, that you know what you CAN control and focus on that. In his case, that scrap metal decoy, just the icing on the cake. Perfect way to end the film.
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Plan for failure. You know, this is where experimentation comes in. We are such big followers and proponents of testing. Testing at every stage. You know, we might have a supposition or a theory or a hypothesis. Well, make sure that we can test it. Uh, it's all about what if this happens? Use your Five Whys again. What if a key team member leaves? What if a supplier isn't able to provide you with the component parts at the price that you need to pivot to stay competitive? There is always an alternative. You just need to be open-minded enough to know that it's out there and maybe it is hidden in plain sight.
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You got to master the fundamentals, whether it's the principles of your industry, human psychology, your data analysis. These are a lot of things to think about, but you need to commit to a deeper understanding of core principles. This is where Elon Musk is so good with his first principles approach. This is where he was able to entirely build rockets from scratch. We have to be so comfortable in the basics that we're ready for innovative applications and we can grasp and understand how they can apply to our business and solve our problems.
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And the last thing, exit strategy matters as much as the entry. How will you make sure that the solution that's provided by Word and Mouth to your business challenge is sustainable? Nick's escape was as well-planned as the actual heist itself. I mean, this guy, amazing. But yeah, I mean, planning is so much a part of success. Um, planning, uh, avoids piss-poor performance, uh, prevents PPPPP. Um, so important to make sure that you've got every base covered. And through testing, you can do that. This is why we love to master the fundamentals and always plan for failure, just so that we can be sure what happens next.
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Well, that's it. Nick Wells wanted one last score to retire. He got it by applying a lifetime of hard-earned problem-solving wisdom. Sounds familiar? This is what we do at Word and Mouth with our 30 years of journalistic experience. The question for us and you is what critical details are hidden in plain sight in our challenges, waiting for a keen eye and a prepared mind to uncover them.
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Join me next time on Hidden in Plain Sight as we explore a wholly different challenge, but we'll still have scores to settle. Until then, keep your eyes open and keep asking why. Bye for now.