- Some brief reflections on Wordle: - For future reference, Wordle is this: [NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html) accessed here: [Wordle the game](https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/) - The psychology of Wordle: - [This tweet](https://twitter.com/add_hawk/status/1481386443503071232) and thread I think narrowed in on the one of the key features of the game: the information design on the "shareable" content. - ![[Pasted image 20220116141813.png]] - The story told by these graphs is a "whole vibe." Its inherently appealing. - This richness is encapsulated by [this](https://twitter.com/saaleha/status/1482121557291978756) suggestion by a friend that you can work out a person's original word. - ![[Pasted image 20220116141954.png]] - Wordle strategy - Lots of people has written and posted about wordle strategy and starting words etc. [Here's](https://bert.org/2021/11/24/the-best-starting-word-in-wordle/?utm_source=pocket_mylist) one of the first that took a look into the code. - "Depends what you optimize for" - My own choice of strategy has been super interesting and links directly back to the social dynamics referenced in the above pysch discussion. - I started poorly, being too cavalier on days 1 and 2 and failing to get the word both times. With the growth of the game, my competitive nature kicked in and I know felt the pressure to succeed. - What this meant now, is that my strategy quickly quickly optimised for "solve in at least 6" rather than "minimize number of attempts". So, from a pysch perspective, I feared not getting the word at all more than I cherished getting the word in say 2 to 4 attempts. - Put differently using scenarios: in scenario A: I get the word with 60% probability in 6 attempts, 40% chance I fail. In scenario B: 10% chance of getting it in 3 attempts but a 80% chance of failure. I prefer scenario B psychologically. - So social pressure shaped in strategy into "minimize failure" over "mind blowing performance/seek glory". I'm still figuring out what this says about my mediocrity. - Practically, this is shown in 2 of my attempts: - ![[Pasted image 20220116142151.png]] - - Here you can clearly see in attempt 2, I use the opportunity to further the information I have about the letters in the word, rather than attempt to establish the exact location of the "E." So my "minimize failure" objective leads to an early exploration of the solution space, rather than a narrower dive. - ![[Pasted image 20220116142102.png]] - You can see this again in attempt 2 and attempt 4 above. - The net results is that my win record has been perfect since I took the game seriously, but also it skews to the 5th and 6th attempt victories. - I feel like there are generalizable insights from this about game design and design in general, but for now I'll focus on my own aversion to failure rather than achievement of glory - Wordle conceptually: - I enjoyed that a small indie-type app built for non-commercial reasons can still occasionally go viral. See [this article](https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/12/josh-wardle-interview-wordle/) for more on this. It just feels so wholesome. With all the discussion around "web2 vs web3", I wonder if we could learn anything from Wordle about making the future of the web feel more amenable to small, cool projects reaching larger audiences. - The fact that this is a love story is also just damn cool. The romantic in me is impressed! - The virality is impressive given that visual share feature which ostensibly drove the growth does not include a link to the game. I'm confused as to the direction of travel here - does the lack of a direct link make the game more attractive (by being something that builds curiosity) or less (by increasing barriers to entry)? - Apple taking down Wordle clone apps is intriguing given that there were no appeals from the creator. What was the basis for this? A social dynamic that felt apps were grifting on the pure version? What is an app were just to point to the web app - thus increasing reach rather than being a grift?