Life Lessons From Wordle

I don't quite know when or why I started doing Wordle, but it has become a daily obsession - along with Quordle, Octordle, Sedecordle, Waffle and new kid on the block Connections. Over the weeks (months! years!) of doing the puzzles every day, a tiny community of friends has built up where we share our scores and commiserate when it all goes tits up. It is very soothing, and I love them all.

We tend to run into the same hurdles over and over again on these Wordle-type word puzzles, so here are my Wordle-fu insights, as life lessons.

1  Get all the vowels out of the way

In Wordle it's unlikely you will hit upon all the consonants you need to create the answer word, but you can easily eliminate all the vowels in two attempts, tops.  

Therefore, in life, you will never have all the answers, but there will be some things that you can easily eliminate that will help you muddle forwards.

2  Never fall down the missing first letter hole

Sometimes in Wordle you get all the letters bar the first one. How many times have I and my Wordling brethern and sistern immediately jumped into the AHA! it must be this!!! Only to discover that it is NOT that letter. And then you bang in another letter. And it is not that letter either and before you know it, you have ONE line left and THREE other words to guess that you haven't even looked at.  Quordle can be a complete bastard like that. 

Don't fixate upon and chase one thing at the expense of another three things that you haven't even looked at. Men, jobs, whatever. You do not want to be 80 and discover you've only got one line left and fuck all chance to look at the other three options.

3  American Spellings

Oh yes, WE on this side of the pond know how to spell COLOUR and COLOR is not it. When you adhere to a set of beliefs without examining them properly, you'll DIE of absolute blazing righteous anger in Wordle. And in life. Life is not fair. Consider all the sneaky options too. 

4 Trying to second-guess the wordle-puzzler's mind set

You have three of the five letters and a myriad of options that would fit the spaces, but only three attempts left. You wonder whether the puzzle-setter will go for the obvious choice or hit something completely mad (yes, CAULK, I'm looking at you). Forget trying to get inside that weirdo's head. Just make your best guess.  Same as in life - don't try to work out what makes another person happy and twist yourself out of shape trying to fit in. Just be your own weird, wonderful self. You might lose the guy, but you might get a job setting the Wordle puzzles.

5 Don't cheat

I see them, the people that solve Wordle in 2 lines, Quardle in 6 etc. And they do it just about every day. Of course sometimes people DO get it in 2 and 6, but they are so vanishingly rare that you are applauding them for DAYS when it happens. If it happens every other day? You're cheating - AND WE KNOW IT.

In life, yes, you can cheat your way to first place - but you don't really win. And we all know that you cheated. Better to fail honestly than cheat *says she who cheats at Trivial Pursuits and has NO REGRETS* 

6 Still not got it and it's line 5 already? 

Don't worry, there is always the chance that you can pull it out of the bag. But don't rush at it. Use a pad and pencil if you have to and make a reasoned final attempt.  

And in life? Even when things go really wrong at the beginning, and the middle, and you fear that it's never going to straighten out ... get a pad and pencil and write down a good first step at an attempt to get on track, even if it's a micro-tiny step. And then do it. If you strike out and get the dreaded X/6? ....

7 Didn't get it? So what?!

Some days, despite our best efforts, we end up with an X/6 but my standard reply to a woeful pal who has struck out is .... tomorrow is another day. We always get another chance at the game.

And our life lesson from Wordle for this: Don't worry, we always get another chance at the game. As St Scarlet of O'Hara (truly the patron saint of lost causes) once said 'Tomorrow is another day'. 

Unless you die in your sleep or something.