Other players weren’t aware of the union’s call to skip the daily puzzle. On the Wordle subreddit, some lamented not knowing about the call sooner. On social media, other players declined to break their streak consciously, with some claiming they didn’t see the point, and others not interested in taking such an action....
As The Cut explored in 2019, people can become attached to their streaks, and the bigger a streak grows, the more a person might feel they have to lose by breaking it....
Do you have any streaks that you're truly attached to, that you feel you'd lose a lot by breaking?
I really only have one: this blog. I'm coming up on 19 years of blogging every single day. The longer it gets the more unbreakably magical it feels. Or... no. That's not really true. Going the whole first year without missing a day felt far more significant than the completion of any other year. Now, it's just normal. But don't misunderstand me: I love normal. I'm very happy to have something that feels so good that I get to do every day.
What's the tag for this? I had to think for a second: It's "superstition"!
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If one solves Wordle in a super quick way (you can see I don't know much about Wordle) do you refuse to wear any other pair of socks when playing?
That is one tell of a true superstition. Until then it's just a habit.
I've been playing free cell for years at freecell.net. I do get bummed out after losing a game that breaks a long winning streak. So much so that it will be weeks or months before I play again.
The Cal Ripken of bloggers
I had a streak for about three years of never missing weekly church (going to a weekday service if necessary), but eventually I got really sick and broke sick.
Sorry, "broke the streak."
Sorry, "broke the streak."
Sorry, I meant "broke the streak."
Theme for the day: First World Problems.
Staying away from the NYT for 24 hours is much less of a self-imposed punishment for the (supposed) greater good than fasting for 25 hours on Yom Kippur.
I bought an Apple Watch back in May '21, and learned soon after that it had a fitness app called Activity that let you set daily goals for three activities: exercise, movement and standing. I decided to try it out, and got hooked on meeting those goals every day. I reached a year without missing any goals and thought at the time that would be the end of it (trying to maintain without missing any goal). Then, I decided, what the heck - go for 500 days straight. I reached that in October, and am now at 565 days without missing.
What's next? Probably go for 2 years and then stop obsessing about it. But when you have friends/family that know you are doing this and they ask you how's it going, you almost feel that you are letting them down (and yourself too) to break the streak.
When I gave up drinking, a month seemed a long time and a year was nothing short of miraculous.
When I hit 25 years, it was just another day.
I've gotten used to "a life second to none".
In high school my buddies and I tried to go out cruising in my 68 Firebird (400 cu in) for 100 day straight. Only two of us finished but along the way we played some great music, hung out with some sexy girls and had some adventures that we still only talk about with each other.
I did streak in college but that's not the same.
Marcus B. THEOLDMAN
Running out of popcorn watching this unfold.
My streak of daily playing at my favorite trivia/puzzle site is up to 1,098. It's a bit of a mental burden, and it's not something I talk about with family and friends, but it's fun.
As a fitness routine for this last year (I turn 64 on the 19th) every morning after getting dressed and starting my coffee I’ve gone to the basement and done a dozen pull-ups and 30+ push-ups. On days that we’re on vacation I scout a park with some kind of climbing bars and do them there. Essentially I start my day by doing the hardest thing I’ll do all day. Every thing else seems easy by comparison.
I had a Wordle streak over a hundred, the one day there was a word with many possible choices for one letter location and I ran out of guesses before guessing it. I was ticked. I haven’t played it since.
I have a 690 day streak going on Duolingo (Spanish). Sometime I go crazy and advance up leaderboards; other days I do the bare minimum to maintain the streak.
I enjoy Wordle, but the idea that breaking a streak is some kind of support for striking workers is pathetic. I mean, who cares? Who does it affect, if you intentionally break a Wordle streak? How is it relevant at all?
Anyway, it's not exactly on topic, but this post reminded me of George Costanza and the Frogger game.
The key to breaking a streak is to break it before it becomes a streak.
Nip that streak in the bud.
My compulsive habit is the digital NYT crossword puzzle. No help allowed but brute force is acceptable. My current streak is 154 days. Longest is 322. I do get more anxious and obsessive as the streak grows.
I like the mental flexibility of working through various combinations of letters as well as definitions/tenses of words. Even after I put an unsolved puzzle aside I often rotate through letters and meanings in my head.
I went for about 10 years once without drinking soda.
No health reason, I just thought I shouldn't drink it.
When I started drinking it again it was just because I wanted to.
Some no years ago I was walking with my husband and he exclaimed "I forgot to shave! For the 1st time since I was 16!" I reported this to my sister who replied "The only thing I've done every day in my life is pee."
Reading this blog...and commenting. I actually feel out of sorts when I let a day go without something to say. Even when I have nothing to say, or just don't feel like saying anything, I'll go back, later in the day to say nothing. Like now.
I find that enjoy letting go of a streak more than the tension of maintaining the streak. Challenge -> Win -> Obligation -> Lifestyle Modifications -> Dread -> Release after it ends.
Mentally accept the win after a day or a week at most, and then let yourself rest.
I’m on day 436 of a streak of reaching “Queen Bee” status in The NY Times Spelling Bee puzzle. There was no way I was going to break my streak for the journalists’ strike!
I have a 68 yr streak going of not streaking out to Picnic Point without wearing pants. But one of these days… who knows?
Ann wrote, "Now, it's just normal. But don't misunderstand me: I love normal. I'm very happy to have something that feels so good that I get to do every day."
I feel the same way about brushing my teeth. :)
I like to play Wordle, but often go several days without it crossing my mind.
I play here: https://wordle-play.com/
I don't know if it's connected to the NYT. If I learn it is then I'll do without. Similarly, I cancelled my subscription to The Athletic when the NYT bought it.
No current streaks, and I don't even think that way any longer.
When I was a teenager, I used to practice free-throws and jump shots and see how many in a row I could sink if I didn't have anyone to play an actual game with. I think that is about the only kinds of streaks I was ever particularly actively aware of.
As for the "strike", I don't do Wordle. I do do the Sunday NYTimes crosswords puzzles, but on a haphazard schedule the last couple of years- mostly when I am waiting for my mother to come out of her medical appointments, or when watching singing contests on television where my attention isn't really required.
Other players weren’t aware of the union’s call to skip the daily puzzle. On the Wordle subreddit, some lamented not knowing about the call sooner.
His master’s voice.
"One player told The Post via Twitter DM that they changed their computer’s clock to do the Wordle early and avoid breaking a 90-day streak."
The game never changes.
The key is always to get the virtue points without sacrificing anything that might make you truly virtuous.
And I, for one, go back later in the day , Temujin, hoping you have written something. You are the best!
I only do the Saturday NYT crossword and I have solved every Saturday puzzle since 1995. I don’t always do it on the day it is published (and my times are apparently 2x Althouse) but I will be sad whenever the streak ends. I am curious today btw as to why Leo Baekeland is known as the father of spastics.
Meade, we've chipped in to have the Picnic Point Webcam installed next week. We'll be waiting for your next move. You could be a star on TikTok.
Changing your computer's clock will be necessary on 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038, when your computer's 32-bit time rolls over to zero (Midnight Jan 1, 1970), for those still using 32 bit hardware. The file dates on all those hard drives and USB sticks, if they're not modern NTFS or equivalent, are 32-bit.
Sent from a 32-bit XP system.
How hard do you find it keeping Eniac running, RH?
White-collar warbles.
I'd've switched to wordle if Rex Parker hadn't called me in tears.
Personally, I prefer "Worldle" since I'm more of a geography nerd. ;-)
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
Ann, have you never gotten up in the morning during those 19 years and just said "I can't do it. My body or my mind won't spend this day on this blog."? I consider myself a pretty faithful and disciplined soul but I can't imagine you didn't experience that day.
The days you don’t post early in the Moring are the days I wonder if the streak has ended.
I’m glad that is has not as my daily reading streak of your blog goes back to almost the very begging of your posting streak.
This post reminds me of a question I keep meaning to ask: are bloggers also private diarists? Or, were they once?
I was often lucky to have great teachers. Some of the best trained me to use diaries from Industrial Britain, the frontier era, the Civil War, and the period between the World Wars to study political and social and literary movements. And many famous people back then used the daily diary with the explicit intent to record history, and they wrote consciously for publication. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's diaries were bestsellers -- the little I know about pre-communist China, or the ways early aviation changed the world, I started learning from her. The immediacy of daily observation is incalculable and very different from other types of writing. She also wrote about being a wife and a mother and the horrors of her child being murdered, and how she had to flee America for a time to protect her other children because the new mass tabloid world exposed her family to constant danger (not to throw Harry a bone).
30 years from now, Althouse will be used and studied this way. One hopes. It is meaningful.
Perseverance is itself laudable when applied to a laudable act (like Althouse style blogging).
Today is Day 71 of logging breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks on a food app (MyNetDiary). Down 22 pounds, so this is a healthy streak to continue.
Wordle streak is 43. I also like the NYT mini crossword.
" I'm very happy to have something that feels so good that I get to do every day. "
I'm sure Meade feels the same way.
Meade said...
"I have a 68 yr streak going of not streaking out to Picnic Point without wearing pants. But one of these days… who knows?"
You reach a stage in life when you say to yourself," What the hell can they do?" Give us a heads up. I'll join you.
I would hope creating a mindful blog would give back more satisfaction than slavishly being programmed by...wordle.
Temujin said...
“Meade, we've chipped in to have the Picnic Point Webcam installed next week. We'll be waiting for your next move. You could be a star on TikTok.“
https://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/u/k/h/5/image.related.socialLead.620x349.gjuk5h.png/1499987904691.jpg
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