Life is a Wordle

I’ve noticed something playing Wordle. Now that I am playing to win with my first guess, my overall score has improved. With every word I play I’m trying to win. My first guess doesn’t hit, so I fall to my backup goal: Win in two guesses.

I’ve stopped placing safe bets. I’m not playing vowel-heavy words or trying to win incremental gains. Every move is a play to win.

Before, if I uncovered an E and a T, I might play TENET to pinpoint their location. It’s a good strategy because it builds on the information I’ve discovered through chance, locks down the location of the letters, and reduces my brain’s cognitive load as I run through combos.

Now, I follow instinct. These two letters are in the word, so where do I think they are? Then I start running the combos as if I already know that’s where the letters are. No second guessing myself.

Of course, I also used a spreadsheet to run an analysis and pick out a first word to play every time. This also constrains me. I’m getting to know the particular problem of playing Wordle where the first word guess is always RHYME.

Is this a life lesson? Is life anything like a Wordle?

• With every move, play to win.
• Stop placing safe bets.
• Don’t prioritize incremental gains over instant wins.
• Use gut instinct to reduce the brain’s cognitive load.
• Optimize the first move to simplify the game.