The WORDLE Philosophy
What a simple word puzzle can teach us about achieving our hopes and dreams!
Ever since my brain first began to consciously evaluate my ever-changing surroundings, I have always managed to find deeper meanings that confide within the peculiarly simple things across our daily lives. An intricate belief, like the sturdy roots of an old tree, is embedded inside me that even from non-complex and monotonous things in life, we can learn and cultivate something entirely good, something that can help us live a considerably better life. How astonishing!
And this strong belief has led me today to discover a thing quite astounding and truly extraordinary confiding within a much simpler outer shell in disguise.
Hiding beneath the seeming tip that is WORDLE, lies a mountain of possibly life-altering philosophy, which when mimicked correctly in our own lives, can truly help us achieve our goals and dreams: The WORDLE Philosophy!
But before I begin relaying all the papers on this philosophy, we first need to know what it is the philosophy of. It is time to ask:
What is WORDLE?
Those familiar with the game of WORDLE, feel free to skip this part and head to the next section.
WORDLE is a daily word puzzle game that one can play simply in a web browser (no additional apps required). The game itself is a breeze to get hang of, a big reason why it is particularly trending around the world. The simplest rule of playing states; we have to guess the word of the day in no more than six attempts. It will always be a random five-letter word. Hence, the attempt-grid will invariably consist of a 5x6 matrix of squares, and would look like this:
Now, when we enter the initial attempt; our first word upon this grid, there are three things that one can find in return indicated by the color change of the letters.
- Grey/Black — These signify the letters which are not present in the final word.
- Yellow — These hint at the letters which are existing in the answer, but not in the current position that we have entered them.
- Mighty Green! — As the nature of this color suggests, these letters indicate being at the right spot and are obviously present in the final word to find.
As there are only six attempts that one can make, the ultimate goal of this game is for us to try different calculated words based upon the intricate feedback provided (green, yellow, or black) and find the eventual answer within the given 5x6 grid.
Being a daily word game, it resets and changes its answer every 24 hours. So, if any of you haven’t tried this even once, I would urge you to try today’s rendition. Once tried, do come back here, so we can finally learn how to use this game as a guiding book for achieving our true goals in life!
Here’s the link -
https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/
After we have familiarized ourselves with this word puzzle, we can then decisively ask,
What the heck is this WORDLE Philosophy?
The WORDLE Philosophy
Let’s take the help of a short instance to understand.
“You did today’s WORDLE yet?”
“Oh, no. I forgot!” I replied to my good friend.
“Today’s word is very tricky! Took me all of my six tries.”
“Oh,” my eyes widened in response. “Let me try it as well,” and within a flash, I was found staring blankly at the familiar empty square grid of 5x6.
Today’s word is very tricky.
My mind remembered, contemplating deeply on what the first try should be. Although I had several common words ready to barge, the term tricky was beginning to mess with my head. Many minutes dared to pass in such manner, and I was still fixated upon the empty and uniformly colored squares in front.
Try something at least!
Incidentally, I went ahead with the word “TRACE”, my strategy being to get the most commonly used letters for a hint at first. I tapped enter and watched in some horror as every letter flipped into utter black of its type. Not even a single alphabet was correct! And my heart skipped a beat.
I sure was stunned, but only for a second or two because I realized that even if the try wasn’t perfect, it seemed necessary to provide me with incredible hints moving forward. As a result, I decided upon using the next word as “WOODS” which contained none of the previously tried letters, yet it should give me some leeway over the final answer. Again the individual letters flipped one by one, revealing “WO” and “D” as still wretched black, while the remaining “O” stood green followed by “S” turning yellow towards the end.
Now we are talking!
Considerable levels of encouragement surged within as I began searching the towers of my memory through every five-letter word satisfying the given condition. I ultimately landed on “FROST”, it seemed like a pretty good and calculated guess. But if there is one thing consistent in WORDLE, is that it’s never what it seems like!
While “FR” and “T” still remained utter black, I got “OS” both in green this time.
Man, this is hard!
I gravely realized, trying to think of a new word that could help me inch closer to the ultimate answer.
What else contains “OS” in the middle?
I tried “GLOSS” next and it managed to give me the whole “LOS” in green. Surprisingly, the last “S” appeared in yellow.
There are two S’!
A new revelation rejuvenated life within me, but the fact that I was already above four tries in total induced severer nervousness. By the process of fairly simple elimination, the new-found “S” could only be correct at the first position. But I had yet to figure out the last letter.
“SLOS_” I mouthed.
What could come after S?
In an effort of classic brute force, I grew to put each of the un-blackened letters in the last position.
SLOSB
SLOSI
SLOSH
Wait…
Could it be SLOSH?
I pondered heavily.
Is that even a word?
I weighed in my all options, knowing that this being my fifth attempt, I might as well try it! Evidently, I entered “SLOSH” and watched impatiently as each and every letter slowly turned mighty green.
Yes!
While the above scenario seems like a typical experience of any WORDLE player on the surface, it may surprise you to know that it’s hiding an extremely powerful and possibly life-altering philosophy underneath!
Let me explain.
Our lives, ever-so changing, turbulent, eventful, and vivid, are all held sanely together only by our common aim to reach our self-defined goals. These goals or aspirations typically do not lie in the realm of ease, it is the reason why we so want and are particularly determined to reach them. But what seems even more difficult is the infinite dilemma of taking the very first step towards achieving our aim. We often become far too entangled within the web of making an absolute right or “perfect” first step. (I too, am also guilty of this fact) And just like we tend to dwell upon our first try in WORDLE, we mirror that in life accordingly.
But let me break an interesting yet crucial fact to you.
Even after hundreds of researched articles on it, there is no “correct” first-try word existing for WORDLE, and correspondingly, there is no such absolute “right” step to take when we are taking our all-important initial step towards our main goal.
Yes, the first step is daunting, truly pivotal and it gravely matters in the long run, but not because we take the “perfect” one, but rather because we have the will to take it no matter what. And the beauty of WORDLE, which heavily mimics itself in life as well, is that even if you get all the black letters, you are always one step closer to the final goal, always learning crucial information along the way which will lead you to make the next best-try possible. Maybe you get a few yellow, or even green after it. You will learn something again from the experience and the next best-informed decision will be the result of it, all towards reaching your ultimate ambitions.
Maybe you are not receiving the green that you desperately want. But as in WORDLE, the game is still winnable until the sixth chance is made, and as in life, your goals are still achievable until your last breath is made.
By consistently learning from our previous tries and making the best possible next step, achieving our greatest of aspirations will become an inevitable fact, it will become our destiny. We will reach there no matter what, and no matter how. As long as we make the all-crucial first try, as long as we are constantly learning, there is nothing to stop us.
Could be that someone else reached a similar goal to yours in fewer tries. But that comparison, while incredibly easy to fall into, will always prove as an utterly pointless act. What we need is a tunnel-vision focus on our own growth, our own learning curve, and our own catalog of tries which will definitely lead us to reach our own sense of success.
As I would like to say:
When life gives you black letters, learn from it until you make ‘em all green!
The key takeaways of The WORDLE Philosophy:
- Making the first try is more important than making the “perfect” try.
- Learn from your attempts. Evaluate what you did black and wrong, what you did green and right, and what you did yellow and could be better.
- Consistency is key. Keep learning and keep trying, making each next step the best step yet, all towards reaching your ultimate goal.
- And last, of all, don’t stop until you make ‘em all green!
When summarized like such, it does seem not too hard to inculcate, does it? That is because it isn’t!
The most astonishing fact is that countless of us who already take part in WORDLE daily, are already using this philosophy to win daily. We just need to mirror this in our actual lives! (Easier said than done, I know. But take the first try and see the difference)
Ultimately, what I want to ask all is this;
How many of my fellow readers are going to adopt The WORDLE Philosophy? What goals are you willing to achieve through this? What else can we learn from this simple word puzzle according to you?
Shoot away in the comments.
And at the end of my post, I would leave you all with a befitting quote from the great John C. Maxwell.
“The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.”
I hope you stay safe and have a great life ahead :)
I hope this elaborate post instills grave thought among my readers and makes one realize the life-altering philosophies that seldom hide under the most mundane of things within our daily lives.
I wish for you all to stay safe and have a great life ahead. Please leave your claps and thoughts in the comments below. I would really appreciate it!
Since I am not eligible for Partner Program, I cannot make money directly through this platform even after well-crossing over 100 followers. If you wish to support me, please visit my Ko-fi page and buy me a coffee :)
https://ko-fi.com/haroon_qureshi
For knowing the full details of why I am still not eligible, please read the below post:
And if you wish to read more articles like these, do follow my publication; Thoughts of a Human.
See you in the next post!
