Wordle Lovers - Play the NYT Daily Game

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Wordle 1,089 6/6*

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Absolutely last chance. But I got it! :/
 
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gmax137 said:
a hard one for me, not sure why

Wordle 1,089 5/6

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Well, 5 was globally the second most popular number of tries to finish the game, so you didn't do that badly.

Given that your first guess yielded 16 potential solutions and 86 accepted words is why I augment my brain with a spreadsheet. I had almost the exact same scenario when I matched the last two letters. Knowing those numbers, I knew I should switch out of self imposed hard mode into ultra safe mode. I then told my spreadsheet to find the 5 most popular letters for the remaining possible solutions, and it gave me a word that yielded only 1 solution.

Some people question this method as being the equivalent of cheating, and I concur. But one day, they'll wake up, look at a picture of a musical band made up of VERY famous musicians, and not remember the name of one of them(Tom Petty). And then the next day, they'll not remember the name of another member(Roy Orbison) of the band. And then they'll realize, that sometimes, some old peoples brains are cheating them out of what they once knew, at which point, they snap, and create a new spreadsheet, to keep track of all this stuff, and instead of being an angry old person, they adopt a set of mental crutches, that will support them for a few more years.

game 1,089​
​
attempts to solve​
global players​
4​
41.5%​
5​
28.7%​
3​
20.7%​
6​
6.2%​
2​
2.6%​
failed​
0.3%​
1​
0.0%​
 
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OmCheeto said:
Some people question this method as being the equivalent of cheating, and I concur.
I have argued with myself whether using spreadsheets or other such aids is a form of cheating and I decided that it is not. In this case, cheating (or lack thereof) is in the mind of the beholder. I think of "cheating" as gaining unfair advantage over others by not following the rules in a game or competition.

Here we have a game in which we are tasked with finding a target word in at most six tries. There is only one rule, "Each guess must be a valid 5-letter word." The algorithm does not allow invalid 5-letter words, therefore the rule cannot be violated that way. This brings us to the edge of the proverbial slippery slope.

Question 1: Is it cheating to have a list of all 12,972 valid 5-letter words and check for matches?
Answer 1: No, because the list is freely available on the web. Everyone who plays the game obviously has web access and hence list access. No unfair advantage here.

Question 2: Is printing the list from the web cheating?
Answer 2: No, anyone can do it so no unfair advantage here either.

Question 3: Is loading the list into a spreadsheet cheating?
Answer 2: No, what difference does it make other than hard copy is harder to manage and search than electronic form. No unfair advantage here.

Question 3: Is writing VBA code to facilitate the search of matches on the spreadsheet cheating?
Answer 3: Writing code to automate the search, instead of doing it manually, expedites the process. There is the advantage of shorter completion time. However, it is not unfair to people who cannot write code because this game is not a timed task. Players can take as much time as they need to complete it.

In conclusion, I think that people who consider using the list and spreadsheets as "cheating" have already chosen what they want to get out of this game and how. Then they call cheaters those who don't share their choices. That's unfair.

It has already been mentioned in this thread that we all get out of the game what we want to get out. I wholeheartedly agree, so let's leave it at that.
 
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Question 4: Is executing a Python code I wrote to solve the puzzle automatically online using my VBA code to facilitate the search and then posting it on PF automatically cheating?
Answer 4: No, because writing such code is just facilitating what I would have done manually anyway. The only problem is that although it exercised my brain while coding, there is no point in executing the code after it is written.

Question 5: Is executing a daily CRON job while I sleep, to run a Python code I found online to solve the puzzle automatically online and then posting it on PF automatically cheating?
Answer 5: Maybe not, but what would be the point?
 
Wordle 1,090 5/6

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I've had way too many 5's lately. I wonder if maybe "cheating" is something I should look into. OTOH, if I did that, I would worry too much about it. That would ruin the fun.
 
gmax137 said:
Wordle 1,090 5/6

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I've had way too many 5's lately. I wonder if maybe "cheating" is something I should look into. OTOH, if I did that, I would worry too much about it. That would ruin the fun.
I only cheat by looking up whether a word has already been used. I don't consider this cheating since I could theoretically know it anyway. I also observed that my expectation value tends to increase. I am still at ##(\mu\, , \,\sigma)=(4.092\, , \,1.087)## which is better than the ##4.2## in the early days. But it's getting harder since natural guesses have already been used and the words become less common (deter, manga, etc.)
 
jack action said:
Question 4: Is executing a Python code I wrote to solve the puzzle automatically online using my VBA code to facilitate the search and then posting it on PF automatically cheating?
Answer 4: No, because writing such code is just facilitating what I would have done manually anyway. The only problem is that although it exercised my brain while coding, there is no point in executing the code after it is written.

Question 5: Is executing a daily CRON job while I sleep, to run a Python code I found online to solve the puzzle automatically online and then posting it on PF automatically cheating?
Answer 5: Maybe not, but what would be the point?
I have drawn the line, for myself, at the point where the spreadsheet and its concomitant algorithms cease to be a bookkeeper and start becoming an advisor or, even worse, a decision-maker. This means that, without asking for suggestions, I get to choose the next trial word after the spreadsheet presents me with a list of possible candidates for the target solution. The next trial word, not necessarily one of the candidates, is strictly my choice.