M2M Day 256: My two-step approach to mastering Saturday NYT crossword puzzles
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For July, my goal is to solve a Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle in one sitting without any aid.
It’s been two weeks since I started this month’s challenge, and so far, my approach has a been a bit all over the place.
This was to be expected, given that I started the month with no clear training plan. However, without a clear framework, I’m finding it more challenging to build a coherent multi-day practice plan, as well as tedious to construct my daily posts (since each post doesn’t have the luxury of sitting within a well-defined narrative structure).
Today, I’m finally starting to build a better mental model of Crossword Puzzle Training, which I share here…
My two-step approach to mastering Saturday NYT crossword puzzles
1. THE DATA — Build a giant mental corpus of crossword clues and answers, using programatic Spaced Repetition
Crossword puzzles are basically a test in vocabulary, general knowledge, wordplay, and letter-proximity statistics. In general, because of the standardized crossword construction rules and the fact that all crosswords are edited by the same person (Will Shortz), there are significant learnable patterns in the vocab and wordplay across Saturday NYT puzzles.
Thus, the greater my knowledge of the most common crossword vocabulary and types of wordplay, the better prepared I am to make a dent in a Saturday puzzle.
I’ve largely figured out how to train for this part of my approach, as I’ve described in my past posts about the programatic Crossword Trainer.
Importantly, this “data” step must be completed sequentially first: Without a reasonable grasp of possible clues and answers, it doesn’t matter how effective my other weapons are—without the data, I won’t have the necessary ammunition.
2. THE MINDSET — Train my brain to remain open and resilient, allowing me to build ‘grid momentum’ towards the Solve Threshold
Assuming that I’ve acquired the necessary amount of data ammunition, the primary remaining limiting factor is completely mental…
I’ve noticed that when I solve a puzzle, if I am able to successfully fill in the first few answers, I build confidence and momentum that carry me through the rest of the puzzle (up until I reach the critical solve threshold).
However, if I struggle on the first handful of answers, I lose confidence and my brain shutdowns, losing its ability to effectively parse the clues.
In other words, I basically already have all the data I need to solve a Saturday puzzle (which I’ve demonstrated on the easily-started puzzles), but I’m sometimes not coming to the other, less-easily-started puzzle with the same necessary mindset (even if these puzzles, on the whole, are equally as difficult).
So, the second piece to my crossword training approach requires that I train my brain and mindset. In particular, I want to ensure that 1. I don’t prematurely pass judgments about my abilities (based on early feedback from the puzzle), and 2. I bring an optimally focused, creative mindset to each puzzle, ensuring that I’m operating at my maximum level of clue cracking.
This might sound a bit pseudo-scientific and non-trainable, but, in fact, this is exactly analogous to my entire journey learning how to backflip.
On Day 3 of my backflip challenge, I proved to myself I had the raw strength and coordination to land a backflip, but my brain still refused to comply. Thus, the rest of the month was focused on systematically training the fear out of my brain.
I will need to train my brain’s crossword abilities in a very analogous way.
I have some ideas about how I’ll do this, which I’ll share in upcoming posts.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
