Wordle was created by Josh Wardle in October 2021. It started to take off in November 2021. It was purchased by the New York Times in January 2022, when I began to see it pop up on my friends’ social media accounts.

The beauty of Wordle is you can’t binge it. There is just one puzzle a day. Everyone plays the same puzzle each day. In a world where you can binge an entire season or even series of a TV show in a day or week, this kind of portion control is very novel and appealing. There is no “one more.” You get just one serving a day, and everyone gets the same serving. A simple form of equity.

I see people cheering each other on social media. I have yet to see someone spoil the word for the day. I am relatively sure an angry mob would form if this happened. Us Wordle players look out for our own. Everyone enjoys each other’s successes when they solve the Wordle. Everyone supports you when you don’t. There is always tomorrow’s puzzle to avenge you.

My friends and I have different strategies to solve the word each day. Some start with a different word each day. I approach each puzzle the same. I play EARTH first every time. If I don’t get any letters on the first line or can’t think of a word to play to build off the letters I correctly guess, I play YOUNG for the second line. This strategy allows me to quickly cover nearly all the vowels and many common letters. So far, my approach is paying off. As of March 10, 2022, I have solved 21 of the 24 Wordle puzzles I’ve played, most of them on the 3rd try. I currently have an 18-day winning streak. Double letters seem to be my Achilles heel. I am more likely to not get the word when double letters are in it. When I struggle with a word, I start to look for words with double letters. This observation has improved my playing greatly.