The Zen of Playing Long Words

[Naboka]

Playing boards for most words or points can be stressful.

I saw a post on Instragram where someone asked AI how he could live to be 140. The answer was to live a stres- free life. The body produces all sorts of bad actors when under unneccessary stress.

Since my compressed anterior interosseous nerve has hampered use of my right thumb and index finger, I've settled into playing for long and best words. It's so relaxing hunting and pecking with a couple of fingers. Almost meditative. So easy to get into a zen state. Whereas playing fast made reaching a zen state extremely difficult. Not impossible but hard to maintain. Being in the zone of distraction and distress.

The competitive advantage of best/longest words is that if you succeed, there is no past or future. You have arrived at an unchangeable destination. The result obtains. It's de facto timelessness. It can no longer be undone. It endures. Like a photon crossing billions of years.

Of course if you reach 701 points in 4x4 or 1001 in 5x5 something similar occurs. But the particle become invisible for the most part. It's an event unseen. At least by others.

Even if the operation on my forearm and hand were 100% successful, I may just stick to the this simplicity. It might add a year or two to my life.

As they say in Hollywood, "May the Force be with you."

[Boulevardiere]

One is a puzzle, and the other is a race. Both have their merits, but I, too, generally prefer to play this game as a puzzle. Racing is stressful, and almost everyone loses!

I'm glad something good has come of what sounds like an otherwise frustrating nerve issue in your hand. Lemons --> lemonade.

[jbud1980]

I'm glad you are still playing; however, settling for playing the longest and best words is not settling. You have just adjusted your game for now. I hope that you do recover, and remember, it's just a game. Also, there's nothing wrong with being a dynamo at finding the best/most words. If anything, it's admirable.

[Naboka]

One is a puzzle, and the other is a race. Both have their merits, but I, too, generally prefer to play this game as a puzzle. Racing is stressful, and almost everyone loses!

I'm glad something good has come of what sounds like an otherwise frustrating nerve issue in your hand. Lemons --> lemonade.

I hadn't really thought of the puzzle vs race factor, but you're right. I like the distinction.

When doing a most-points scramble, I was mostly dependent on extensive and complex arrays of memorized chunks. There wasn't really time for puzzling. And a lot of it was simply educated guessing that certain words would exist given pods of certain letter groupings. Even my skill at long words depended on a comprehensive memorization of common and uncommon word elements that provided a panoptic grasp of word possibilities when viewing the board.

When working with kids in my wife's kindergarten class, I put a lot of emphasis on spelling. At first they will slowly figure out how to spell something simple like "shot" and I'll say, "what's your name." Their response is immediate, without having to think. I'll say, "see, you know your name, you didn't have to think about it, now spell shot like you know it." By the end of the year the bright ones are spelling at 3rd grade level.

But the odd thing is, that ability doesn't necessarily last. We had a couple of good spellers come back this year to deliver things to the wife. I'd call them over to demonstrate to the new kids how to spell. I was asking a bright current kid how to spell wing, so I asked the former bright one how to spell swinging, something she was once capable of doing without hesistation. She struggled. I was shocked. So, it was obvious knowing had limitations in learning and performance. We can forget.

Sometimes, playing now, I'll question whether certain letter sequences were words I normally would have played. Not that I was going to play them on that board because they were shorter words that would hurt the average PPW. But the curiosity was about how quickly skills can deteriorate.

Apologies for the longwinded comment. I was simply going to appreciate the race/puzzle concept. But, my mind had other ideas. So, I'll abandon the line of thoughts stretching around the block. Sold out folks, sorry.

I seem incapable of looking at certain ideas without a cognitive brushfire igniting.

[Naboka]

I'm glad you are still playing; however, settling for playing the longest and best words is not settling. You have just adjusted your game for now. I hope that you do recover, and remember, it's just a game. Also, there's nothing wrong with being a dynamo at finding the best/most words. If anything, it's admirable.

Thanks.

Yeah it's just a game. Life, itself, is mostly a game. Opportunity costs affect every choice we make.

I remember your question long ago about whether you should play for higher word totals or best words. You seem to have managed to do both. There are only a few players who can get your long words and still consistently run up good scores.

The odd thing about Wordtwist is that the truly awesome words tend to be in the low-word-availability boards. You aren't going to find 37 point words on a board where you can score 700 points. Playing the small boards has lucrative rewards. You can't play high APPW and find those words.

Problem with playing a single word for me is that sometimes I get the word then hit submit instead of enter. So the word doesn't count. Twice I've gotten 37 point words, and been so excited, I hit the submit rather than enter key. Oooops. The game stats come up as nothing played.

For me, the biggest concern in doing best/longest words is that the record becomes unavailable to other players. I liked being able to get best words and retire the game so others could benefit. But, such is the nature of existence.

You still exercising, getting in time with your bike?