The Zen of Wordle
To solve difficult problems, stop thinking about them.
I was devastated after losing a game of Wordle. “It's just a game,” I told myself. But I didn't feel better.
Shocked at how annoying it was to break my winning streak, I decided to play Wordle seriously to see what was happening to me when I played it.
Wordle is a New York Times word puzzle. After playing it for a while, I came to realize it is a safe place to try out strategies for tackling more serious problems; a sandbox for thinking about problem-solving.
When you study a problem, your brain works in two states. These are the focus mode and the diffuse mode. The focus mode is hopefully what you are in right now reading this. You aren't sipping coffee, checking your email or listening to music are you?
The focus mode takes practice for most people. Distractions are always there to tempt us into warmly inviting procrastination. The Pomodoro Technique is an effective way to enter focus mode.
The diffuse mode is the freely wandering state the brain uses to think about problems. You enter the diffuse mode when you go for a walk or sleep. Serious creatives attempt to employ the diffuse mode by trying to wake from sleep ready to record their waking thoughts. Thomas Edison would go to sleep holding steel balls. When he fell asleep, the balls would crash to the floor, waking him up. He would immediately write down any ideas he was having. The painter Salvador Dali would employ the same technique using forks.
To maximize your chance of solving a problem you need to combine both modes of thinking. You first need to focus very hard on the problem you want to solve. In a game of Wordle, this means concentrating on the clues you are getting. When you get stuck you need to employ the diffuse mode. That means you have to stop thinking about Wordle and do something else.
That is difficult to do.
Zen means "nothing." Zen masters train themselves to empty their minds of thoughts to enter the diffuse mode. Paradoxically, the subconscious mind can only work its magic when a person stops thinking.
It is not possible to be in focus mode and diffuse mode at the same time. It is necessary to switch back and forth from one to the other. Focus mode must be employed first to give the diffuse mode something to work with.
In a game of Wordle, as well as in attempts to solve the more serious problems in our lives, it is necessary to first concentrate on what we are trying to solve. When the solution evades us, we need to avoid our tendency to try even harder..
It is often best to stop thinking about anything at all.
I really like this article! I learned very much from it, and hope to apply it to my everyday life.