Like many of us1, I partake in the social ritual of daily puzzle games. Some of my favourites of these are lesser known gems such as The Daily Spell2, Clues by Sam, and Bracket City3, but my first love was NYT's Connections (sorry Wordle fans4).
Now, Connections is a flawed game5, and yet I find myself inexorably drawn back to it each day (even if only as one item in the sequence of other puzzles in the binge). Perhaps it's the thrill of cracking Purple first, or perhaps it's telling myself that I should just do it to try and do something potentially edifying with my last few minutes of the day, or perhaps it's just to spite whatever outlandish and/or unguessable groups it no doubt has to present that day6.
So, what does one do while staring at a puzzle, other than think about meta-gaming it?
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