3 ms·

Isn't this simply a game about how to do a binary search of a dictionary? How is that exciting?

by jjuhl 11y ago

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
furyofantares 11y ago
I think it's more about how difficult it can be to do a binary search of the dictionary in your head. I don't want to spoil today's word, and I've tried not to below, although there are minor spoilers. Once I started to narrow it down it became difficult to find words between my constraints. In one case I was making assumptions about what letters can come after other ones while trying to generate a new word (and being aware of this isn't enough to stop it.) And then, in the last case, when I had it narrowed between <xyz> and <xyz>ed (think jump and jumped, for example), my brain only wanted to search for words that were conceptually related to xyz. This was a mistake, the goal word started with xyz but was not related to it conceptually, but again, an awareness that my brain was favoring a search of the concept space rather than searching the dictionary alphabetically was not enough to remedy it.
- organsnyder 11y ago
  I had the same experience. I locked in to the first letter within a few guesses, but then struggled to find words that began with the second letter I wanted to guess. Eventually, I realized that, since I was on my phone, I could take advantage of predictive text to help me out (okay... "cheat" is probably more accurate). I doubt that I would have figured it out on my own (due to the word being totally unrelated to the word that makes up the first few letters).
- caseysoftware 11y ago
  Almost the same experience here. I think more important than a word cloud of guesses would be the progression of words to see people's thought process (dictionary vs conceptual). And I'm not ashamed at all that I started with "monkey" after all, M is the 13th letter. ;)

3 ms·

Isn't this simply a game about how to do a binary search of a dictionary? How is that exciting?

by jjuhl 11y ago

Isn't this simply a game about how to do a binary search of a dictionary? How is that exciting?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
furyofantares 11y ago
I think it's more about how difficult it can be to do a binary search of the dictionary in your head. I don't want to spoil today's word, and I've tried not to below, although there are minor spoilers. Once I started to narrow it down it became difficult to find words between my constraints. In one case I was making assumptions about what letters can come after other ones while trying to generate a new word (and being aware of this isn't enough to stop it.) And then, in the last case, when I had it narrowed between <xyz> and <xyz>ed (think jump and jumped, for example), my brain only wanted to search for words that were conceptually related to xyz. This was a mistake, the goal word started with xyz but was not related to it conceptually, but again, an awareness that my brain was favoring a search of the concept space rather than searching the dictionary alphabetically was not enough to remedy it.
- organsnyder 11y ago
  I had the same experience. I locked in to the first letter within a few guesses, but then struggled to find words that began with the second letter I wanted to guess. Eventually, I realized that, since I was on my phone, I could take advantage of predictive text to help me out (okay... "cheat" is probably more accurate). I doubt that I would have figured it out on my own (due to the word being totally unrelated to the word that makes up the first few letters).
- caseysoftware 11y ago
  Almost the same experience here. I think more important than a word cloud of guesses would be the progression of words to see people's thought process (dictionary vs conceptual). And I'm not ashamed at all that I started with "monkey" after all, M is the 13th letter. ;)