Like millions of others, I’m hooked on Wordle. This was today’s game. You might wonder what in the world this has to do with the philosophy of Rules and why in the world anyone would display this average-at-best performance. I’ll concede average-at-best. But solving Wordle has a lot in common with Rules.
My first two stabs were total misses. I felt my pulse quickening. I was heartened by the third guess- sort of educated- the solution has to have a vowel and voila- an O in the right place and a random S as well. Pulse slows. I fiddled around with the letters that were left and the answer came up green. From likely failure to done- with just two little words.
All of those dark grey letters could be eliminated. “Eliminating the unnecessary allows the necessary to speak.” Hans Hofmann
Bread and icing were mistakes. I knew not to use those those letters a second time if I hoped for success. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” Will Rogers
Five green squares- perfection- on a very small scale.“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more to take away.” St. Exupéry
Either you get it- easily, or by the skin of your teeth-or you don’t. “Do or don’t do, there is no try.” Yoda
Here’s to more doing- Wordle and otherwise.