4 ms·

But but but Wordle is one step beyond Towers of Hanoi when it comes to basic programming exercises.

bigiain 5y ago
Yep. Writing code does not make for a finished project. This guy got the deal because he had the user base. I don't know how much of that was luck, how much was smart iterating over a simple idea until it "clicked" with heaps of people, or how much of it was subtle but powerful viral marketing tactics. You're right, I suspect 75+% of people here could have a working implementation of this in an afternoon. But none of us did. And none of us have over a million DAU. And none of us closed a deal with NYTimes. Josh did. In 4 months. While holding down a day job. Major respect from me. The idea and code is about as worthless as the idea of selling identical hamburgers everywhere across the globe. An "easy" idea and plan to have. McDonalds out-executed pretty much everyone there.
- justinator 5y ago
  No I mean, it's literally a coding exercise ala, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-program-for-word-guessing-game/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-program-for-word-guessi... I'm not sure where NYT is doing here. It's not like the idea can be patented, and the popularity has not been proven anything other than a Twitter fad. It's the next Sudoku - it's already been cracked to be absolutely brain-dead simple to cheat. McDonalds is a weird analogy to bring up, as the end product is absolute lowest common denominator trash food. But yeah - all the best to Mr. Dan - lottery ticket printed out. Users as the product and all that.
  - bigiain 5y ago
    > No I mean, it's literally a coding exercise And literally nobody except Josh has closed a million buck deal for it... It kinda proves my McDonalds point (however bad an example that might be). Nobody even needed to think up the word game idea. Anybody (at least in this site's demographic) could build it. McDonalds are pretty much the only organisation that've succeeded in opening up burger joints across the globe, even though it's an easy idea and making burgers isn't hard.
  - shawabawa3 5y ago
    > I'm not sure where NYT is doing here The "wordle" brand alone is easily worth $1m
- bambax 5y ago
  The creator says here https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/wordle-game-creator-wardle-twitter-scores-strategy-stats.html https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/wordle-game-creator-wardle... that he built the first prototype in 2013. So it's not exactly an overnight success. From the same article, he says the two big changes he made were that 1/ the first prototype allowed for continuous play, ie when you got one word right it immediately offered another, instead of having one word per day 2/ the list of possible 5-letter words was reduced to "common" words (you can guess using all existing words, but the words to be discovered are usual ones, not obscure words nobody ever uses). The second element is a kind of "dumbing down" that broadens the audience, and the first one clearly has a social element to it.
  - justinator 5y ago
    that he built the first prototype in 2013. But it's essentially Hangman, isn't it? With, actually, a worse user interface.
erehweb 5y ago
The coding is easy. Getting the design (one word a day) and sharing right is one of those things that is easy in retrospect.
MattSayar 5y ago
Didn't an HN user create the ultimate "basic programming exercise" with a bingo card creator? It's never about how simple the implementation is, it's a mix of factors including timing, execution, luck, and finally, implementation.

Yep. Writing code does not make for a finished project. This guy got the deal because he had the user base. I don't know how much of that was luck, how much was smart iterating over a simple idea until it "clicked" with heaps of people, or how much of it was subtle but powerful viral marketing tactics. You're right, I suspect 75+% of people here could have a working implementation of this in an afternoon. But none of us did. And none of us have over a million DAU. And none of us closed a deal with NYTimes. Josh did. In 4 months. While holding down a day job. Major respect from me. The idea and code is about as worthless as the idea of selling identical hamburgers everywhere across the globe. An "easy" idea and plan to have. McDonalds out-executed pretty much everyone there.

justinator 5y ago
No I mean, it's literally a coding exercise ala, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-program-for-word-guessing-game/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-program-for-word-guessi... I'm not sure where NYT is doing here. It's not like the idea can be patented, and the popularity has not been proven anything other than a Twitter fad. It's the next Sudoku - it's already been cracked to be absolutely brain-dead simple to cheat. McDonalds is a weird analogy to bring up, as the end product is absolute lowest common denominator trash food. But yeah - all the best to Mr. Dan - lottery ticket printed out. Users as the product and all that.
- bigiain 5y ago
  > No I mean, it's literally a coding exercise And literally nobody except Josh has closed a million buck deal for it... It kinda proves my McDonalds point (however bad an example that might be). Nobody even needed to think up the word game idea. Anybody (at least in this site's demographic) could build it. McDonalds are pretty much the only organisation that've succeeded in opening up burger joints across the globe, even though it's an easy idea and making burgers isn't hard.
- shawabawa3 5y ago
  > I'm not sure where NYT is doing here The "wordle" brand alone is easily worth $1m
bambax 5y ago
The creator says here https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/wordle-game-creator-wardle-twitter-scores-strategy-stats.html https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/wordle-game-creator-wardle... that he built the first prototype in 2013. So it's not exactly an overnight success. From the same article, he says the two big changes he made were that 1/ the first prototype allowed for continuous play, ie when you got one word right it immediately offered another, instead of having one word per day 2/ the list of possible 5-letter words was reduced to "common" words (you can guess using all existing words, but the words to be discovered are usual ones, not obscure words nobody ever uses). The second element is a kind of "dumbing down" that broadens the audience, and the first one clearly has a social element to it.
- justinator 5y ago
  that he built the first prototype in 2013. But it's essentially Hangman, isn't it? With, actually, a worse user interface.

erehweb 5y ago

The coding is easy. Getting the design (one word a day) and sharing right is one of those things that is easy in retrospect.

MattSayar 5y ago

Didn't an HN user create the ultimate "basic programming exercise" with a bingo card creator? It's never about how simple the implementation is, it's a mix of factors including timing, execution, luck, and finally, implementation.