My Dad Always Starts Wordle With The Same 3 Words, And It Just Feels Wrong

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

On a recent family trip, I learned my dad always starts Wordle with the same three words. I know this is a ridiculous hill to die on, but for some reason, this doesn’t sit right with me. It’s not that his approach is ineffective — quite the opposite. But to me, it drains the joy out of the game.

It’s a bit like ordering the same meal at your favorite restaurant every time you go, even if it’s the best thing on the menu. You’re not wrong, exactly. You’ll no doubt enjoy it. But where’s the variety? Where’s the spice?

Just tell us the words!

Matt Horne / Android Authority

I’ll get on my high horse about why I’m being the Fun Police in a moment, but I’ll reveal my old man’s opening three Wordle words first.

His first word is TASER. Makes sense, with five of the most common letters, including two of the most common vowels. Incidentally, he used to start with STARE, but then that was the first word one day, so he switched the letter order around to keep the first-guess hopes alive.

I have no interest in debating Wordle strategy — I’m not trying to start a TED Talk about vowel frequency — but a quick bit of Googling taught me that TARSE is the optimal starting word. That’s another anagram with the same five letters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my dad knew that.

I didn’t even know this was a word.

The next word is COLIN, hitting two more common vowels and three handy consonants. I didn’t even know this was a word; I thought it was just a dude’s name. However, it’s apparently a cute game bird, also known as the Northern Bobwhite. I like the idea of a bird called Colin (or Bob), plus it’s exactly the kind of borderline word the New York Times might throw in just to watch Wordle players descend into chaos. Putting a cat amongst the colins, if you will.

He occasionally deviates at this stage if he has most of the letters. If not, his third word is DUMPY. That tidies up the last vowel and leaves not many common letters untested.

These are smart choices. I imagine I’d find out that they’re near optimal if I could be bothered to look into it, and it’s an approach that hits many of the NYT’s own Wordle tips. But he’s at least at the halfway stage of the game by this point, without any challenge or fun.

Aren’t games meant to be fun?

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Look, everyone is welcome to play Wordle in the way that makes them happy. But if you play this way, are you really happy? For me, the game is a five-minute daily diversion. It’s a testing little interlude and a small snack for my brain. Just because you can optimize your strategy to within an inch of its life, I’m not convinced you should make at least half of it the same each time.

The game doesn’t care if you solve it in two or six. There’s no leaderboard, no prize, no grand reward. If my dad had worked out a way to beat the house in Vegas, I’d be right behind his optimization. But all there is to gain from Wordle is fun, and perhaps a bit of pride. On that latter point, as I said about my Duolingo streak, other people don’t care about your stats.

And if games are meant to be fun, doesn’t locking in the first half of every round miss the point? When my dad plays, the first few guesses feel mechanical and not like part of the puzzle at all. He isn’t playing a game until word three or four. It’s like always playing blackjack by the book against a computer, and for no cash prize, except it’s probably even less satisfying because Wordle is over two minutes later.

He isn’t playing a game until word three or four.

My mom and I take the random approach of starting with the first five-letter word that comes into our heads. Often it’s a word I just heard on a podcast, or sometimes it’s a total wildcard with odd and repeated letters, like VEXED. Then I’ll see where it takes me. So what if it’s wildly inefficient? It gives me a different challenge every day. My dad almost certainly has better stats than I do, but like I said, no one cares. Let’s live a little, shall we? Even if it’s in the most minor way possible.

If you start Wordle with the same three words, please tell me why in the comments. Does failing ruin your day? Is it a competition for bragging rights with your partner or friends? I’m happy to be shown the bigger picture, as long as it doesn’t look the same every day.