Lexulous Life Lessons: The Will To Win

The question you have to ask yourself is:

Just how bad do you want it?

The killer instinct to put them away
The determination to fight when looked in the eye. 
The sheer hate of losing and the desire to do just about anything to avoid it.
Hate to lose.  
Very few have this. 
I thought I wanted to be one of the best Lexulous players out there.
I have had my rating at 2000 or better. I have been there, but I can't stay there.  Why is that? I certainly want it.

I have written and posted more than 30 blogs about lessons I have learned playing Lexulous in the past year.

It is great to  re-read them all myself.  I have learned a lot by playing. I am certainly a much better player than I was, even when I was very good I was not as good as I could be. As I am now. But I know I can be better. I am still missing that one ingredient. That one...that this blog is about.

Desire 
 

 When I first started to go to the harness races, there was a super horse called Cam Fella. They called him "The Pacing Machine". And for good reason. He was like a machine. Yes he was fast, very fast.  And talented, supremely talented. And classy, but so were tons of horses. A horse named Its Fritz was all of those things as well. But Its Fritz didn't win 28 straight races, let alone at that level
Cam Fella did to end his career. The question is: Why? Why did Cam Fella do it while many very talented horses, possibly as talented or more talented,  did not? Cam Fella had something they didn't. He simply refused to lose. I don't know if you can teach that. I am not sure if you can develop that. But you can certainly spot it. The determined are very easy to distinguish from the quitters. Why? Because they win. A lot.

  
When they met,  Cam Fella looked beat. And he was beat. Now, Its Fritz didn't just lose because of lack of desire or extreme desire on Cam Fella's part, but that was part of it. When Its Fritz got tired, he just didn't have that will to keep going and get the job done. Cam Fella had that. On a day where talent and conditions and luck were equal, Cam Fella just wanted it more. That, in my opinion, is what separates the great ones from the very good ones.
 
When I play Lexulous,  I win quite a bit. More than my share. I am pretty good. I have taken the time to make myself into a very good player.  But I am not a great player. I should be. I might be. I can be. But right now, I am not. I want to be. But I am not. Why?

 Horse trainers talk about it all the time. So do coaches.. Dale Hunter, Pete Rose.  Michael Jordan. Rocket Richard. They just hated to lose and when the chips were down, they just refused to let it happen.

 I have found in life it all boils down to one thing. The will to win. The drive and desire to achieve and do your best. Whenever you do anything, you make that decision to either do the best you can or do less than that. Some are born with that desire and don't even have to think about it. They know no other way. Others have to make a decision. Some are a mixture of both, at any given particular time.

How bad do you want it? Do you want it bad enough that you are going to do whatever it takes to win? In many cases, that is what separates the good from the great. 
When  you play Lexulous, you always have a choice to make. You can simply play the best move you can find at the time, quickly, or you can take the time to make the best move possible every time. There is a very wide gap between the results you get from one mode of operation to the other.


I think about this, because it is relevant to my writing. Do I really want it that bad? Am I just relying on my natural talent and not putting out the effort that is really needed? Am I ever going to get all my great concepts out there if I don't wake up everyday with a burning desire to do so? 
So far, the answer to those questions is not something I am proud of. 

5 questions you need to ask yourself.

What is it going to take to win this game?
What is it going to take to write and finish this script?
If I want to get to point B, and I am at point A, what is it going to take to get there from here? 
Why aren't I getting it done and others are? 
Why don't I care enough to care enough to care if I don't succeed?


It is all about desire. Be that money, sex, winning, writing, or anything. Those that really want it, or want it more, are very much more likely to get it. 
There is no greater factor than that. When you reach the top and face the best, you are both likely as talented as each other. It will boil down to who wants it more.
Are you going to be the one that does, or doesn't? 


 

Lexulous Life Lessons: Trying to make the big score

Slow and steady wins the race.
How many times in your life have you heard that?
But most of us don't follow that advice. We buy lottery tickets. We invest in that hot stock, that is very speculative, in order to make the quick score.
I have been prone to this behavior most of my life. Even though I am  very level headed, hard working and generally make a grand plan to execute any theory I may have. It is a character flaw of mine, one I need to correct. 
Playing Lexulous has exposed this to me once again. Continually, I have tried to save for the big score. I lose many games because of it. It is a losing strategy. Playing for the big score is a rush when you get it. Like winning the lottery. But you most likely will not win the lottery in your lifetime. You are more likely to build your wealth steadily, over time. Just like you are more likely to win at Lexulous, or at anything, if you steadily grind away.
The long homerun pass in football is the one that makes the highlight reel, but the game is usually won 4 or 5 yards at a time.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Losing and Winning at the same time

When you play Lexulous,  you know you are going to lose some games. That is part of the deal. Just like baseball. 
If you hit 300 you are considered a very good hitter. That means that you are at the top end of all hitters, in spite of the fact that you fail 7 times out of 10.
In horse racing,  winning 25 percent of your starts means you are doing well. Again, that also means you lose 75 percent of the time.
With Lexulous, if you win 4 out of 5 times, that is pretty good. Still at 80%, than means you are going to lose 20% of the time. If you play about 50 games a week, than means you are going to lose at least 10 times. 
This last week, I have been playing a woman I know that I currently can't beat. She wants to play me, even though she continually is beating me very handily. Normally I would not keep playing a player that I know is far beyond my current level of ability, but lately I have felt that I have taken my skill level and knowledge as far as I currently can go. I need to seek tougher opponents and study how they can demolish a very good player like me. In that way, I am losing games but winning knowledge. When I get to the point where I can win my share against her, I will know that the losing was worth it. 
Losing is part of life. If you only won all the time, then you either need to seek tougher competition or find something else to do. Once you have reached the top of the mountain, it is time to head back down and find another mountain to climb. If you have climbed the toughest, highest, most dangerous mountain you can possibly find, it is time to try something else. Maybe run a marathon. Or swim across the English Chanel. Maybe race cars. There is another challenge waiting out there for you.

For most of us, we will never climb that mountain. We will always have some aspect of losing attached to whatever we do. We hope to get better over time and lose less, but losing, the feeling of losing, is there to enhance the exhilaration of winning. One is really always connected to the other. 
The ups and downs of life are also like that. For every high there is a low. In between,  there are lots of days with neither. Being too high when you are high, or too low when you are low, means you don't remember the other side of the equation. In that case, you don't remember that if you are really low, it wont last and the high will return again at some point.
 Losing is temporary. You lose, you move on to the next match. You try your hardest not to lose again, all the time knowing that you will lose again, for sure, just as you will win again. 
Either way, as I like to say, the sun will rise either way. Tomorrow is always a new day and dwelling on losses or being overly high because of a win is living in the past. You experience and you move on. 
That is what life is about. Ups, downs,  middles and keeping on keeping on. 



  

Lexulous Life Lessons: Your Agenda is Not My Agenda

I love playing Lexulous and Wordscraper. I started out with Wordscraper but have tended to play Lexulous more. I find the tactical aspect a little more challenging.
At one time,  I had more than 50 active games of Wordscraper and around 30 active games of Lexulous.  That was way too much and kept me busy all day just to keep up.
When I started to focus more on writing again,  I knew I had to cut back. So I whittled the Wordscraper games down to 5 or 6 and Lexulous down to 10 or 12. Those were very manageable numbers for me, and since I played pretty much the same people day after day it was easy to keep up.
After a while though,  playing the same people over and over again can get boring.  Almost like you are playing the same game,  over and over again, until you get bored with it.
At times like that, I start a few new games. Since it is much easier to find decent players at Lexulous, I usually increase there. This last week, I have gone from 10 active games back to around 25. It is still very manageable and I enjoy it.
Playing new players brings new challenges but it also brings new experiences. Everyone has their own way of playing, and in addition to the variety to keep it interesting, there is also the aspect of learning by observing how certain players play, then adapting that to your style to become an even better player.
Some players though don't want to adapt. They like their style and wish to stay in that box, no matter what. I am okay with that. To each his own. 
Then there are the players who want you to play like them and if you don't they start to get on your ass about it. Last night that happened.
It is not the first time I have experienced it, but this was one time where I was not in the mood to hear it or tolerate it. Basically, this woman was angry at me for stacking on to her words. Most players actually play this way and it is part of the game. However, when she took offense to that, I shot back.  Below is the text of the conversation.

Her: just gonna stack on my words the whole game??

Me:: I play what I have. That is part of the game.

Her: hmmm. easy points, no work, I think!

Me: you think too much. the point of the game is to make the best move and score the most points. that is what I do. I have a large vocabulary. I don't need to prove that.
Her:  would not want to use a large vocabulary. can understand that.

Her: difference between word building and pretense, surely.

Me: I play tactical. to win.  simple as that. whatever the best move is,  I play that. if that means playing off your word, or if it means another spot,  that is what I play. i don't see why you care what the other person plays, as long as they don't use a word gen. we all have different styles.  I play to compete and sometimes chat.

 Her: okay ... just that when you joined my game, the host note chat box requested non-stacking playing style. you could host your own game or join another if you don't like my style. totally agree -- style difference.

Me: I didn't join your game. You joined mine. Maybe you should spend more time paying attention and less time judging others. 

Now, she has every right to play whoever she wants and however she wants. So do I. 
This brings me back to my main point of the blog and something that has happened to me a lot in the last couple of weeks.
Many of my friends have put out status's lately and asked a question, therefore begging an answer. Me, being the opinionated type, has made an attempt at answering them. What I have learned though is that they don't want the answer, and if they do,  certainly not from  someone like me. I cannot realistically answer their question, because I come from a position in  my mind and in my life that will never match theirs.
Their agenda in life is not my agenda in life. Just as my way of playing Lexulous is not their way of playing Lexulous. And it never can be.
I play Lexulous for conversation and a tactical challenge and many others don't. They play for their own reasons.  I don't try to tell them  how to play,  just as they should not tell me how to play. I play for myself, and so should they. It isn't anybody's business how the other person competes,  or why they play at all.  When you try to force that opinion or agenda on them, you will get the response that this woman got from me.
 So the lesson I have learned is that no matter how much you believe in what you are doing, how right you think you are,  that only makes sense when you look at it from the unique perspective that is embedded in your core, in your brain. Others will never see it that way and it is futile to try and convince them otherwise.
We all have different aspirations and agendas in life, and it is a big waste of time to give advice to those who don't share those with you. Even if you are right, you are wrong. 




  

Lexulous Life Lessons: Find your weakness, make it a strength

 We all have weaknesses just as we all have strengths. I have found the key to being better, or being the best you can be, is minimizing your weaknesses and in some way turning them into strengths.
I hate the letter V in Lexulous. There is not much you can do with it. Or, is there? 
I used to think there wasn't. A lot of Lexulous boils down to making high value scores with two letter words. In the case of the V, that simply won't happen. There isn't any words that have a V that are two letters only, either beginning or ending. So, for the most part, V is a letter that hurts you more than helps you for as long as you keep it or hold it. That is one way to look at it, but of course there are other schools of thought.
There are many words that have a V in them, and because they don't come to mind right away for me (and others) I claim the V is a "difficult" letter to use. But, it isn't. I can learn the other words and get more value from the V. For starters, that is something I can do. I haven't to date, but it is something I need to do if I want to get to that next level and beat the best players out there. When you want to beat the best, you need every edge you can find. I know they will do it, because they are the best and want to be. They have likely taken every weakness and made them into strengths.
Now, the V does have one great value and I have learned over time by observing others who use it. Because it is impossible to make 2 letter words with it (as mentioned earlier) if you place it in the right spot, you can effectively make a decent score and block your opponent from doing anything to counter that move. In that way, it has great value. If you can make a decent score and your opponent can do nothing to counter it, then in effect you have made a great score. Again, the value is there, you just have to open your mind to look for it and learn how to use it.
The lesson for today: In life, there are always obstacles. You have two choices.  First, you can submit, relent, give up and accept that you can do no better. Or, secondly you can find your weakness, make it a strength. Take what appears to be nothing and make it into something you can use. That is what winners do and losers don't.

Lexulous Life Lessons: There aren't that many rainy days

 Most of us, as younger people are taught to save something for a rainy day. I remember that lesson as my mother repeated it to me many times over as a child. And for good reason. My father was the type to make lots of money and spend it just as fast. My mother was just the opposite. There were times when my father made hundreds of thousands of dollars each month, and a lot of that was cash. If left to his own devices, he would have found a way to spend it all. 
I remember one very memorable incident when that was very obvious. In one of the very good times,  my father had five brand new Cadillac's in front of our house. As we only had two parking spaces in the driveway, there were always 3 on the street. As well, my mother would never drive one, as she didn't like big cars, so only my father and I would, meaning 3 were never being driven. As a result, I was the only kid in high school who drove a top of the line Cadillac to school everyday. And, a different one everyday. They must have thought I was a drug dealer or a pimp.
When the bad times came again, all that money was gone and one day we came out to find that all the Cadillac's were now gone, repossessed by whatever company had supplied them.  Such was our life when I was growing up.
Luckily enough though,  my father was also very generous. He liked to give stuff and money to people. I had a lot of toys when I was a kid and our fridge was always full. Whenever we wanted something, my father would get it for us. It gave him a sense of pleasure to do that. Making money was a big rush for him, but giving it away and/or spending it was as big as if not a bigger rush for him.
My mother has related stories to me about how my father would come home with a big bag of cash, maybe $20,000, and just hand it to her. This was a weekly affair for a few years. My mother told me she would just put it in the bottom of a drawer and saved it for a rainy day, which came often. There were a lot of rainy days in my childhood. At times, although I was very young at the time, I suspect we were millionaires one month and then deep in debt a few months later. This went on for many years. There were a lot of rainy and sunny days back then for us. My mother estimated that at one point she had more than $200,000 in cash in a drawer in her bedroom. And yes, that made her very nervous.
I have always tended to be a lot more like my mother in that respect than my father. In almost every other aspect I take after my father, but not that one. I am sort of a saver. And that goes deeper than just money. I like to keep things. I am not a pack rat, but I am in the ballpark there.
Playing Lexulous as much as I do that becomes a noticeable habit. I like to keep letters and make words, even to the detriment of my winning or final score. Being naturally creative as well I like to make things-create things. If I don't have a word, I will save letters and try to make that word, even though I could probably make a better score by simply playing whatever word I have on those two turns. It is a mish mash of character traits that drives me toward this behavior.
Being somewhat intelligent as well, I know this is a poor strategy. Being a pack rat while playing word games is counter productive to winning, most of the time. Many times at the end of a game that I know I should have won but have lost I ask myself: 
Why did this happen? 
Of course, I know why it happened. I saved and hoarded letters and lost the game because of it. It is a very tough habit to break, when it is a coping and survival strategy you learned very young in life.
When I trained horses I did the exact same thing. I had horses I kept that I knew I should have just sold because trying to make them productive when they could not be productive was a money losing strategy. My inclination to "make it work at all costs" strategy has rarely worked out for me over the long haul. 
Playing Lexulous has once again pointed that out for me. It is a cold slap in the face when you need a cold slap in the face.
My Lexulous lesson for the day is this: There aren't that many rainy days in life. Yes, there are some, but for the most part holding on to something you don't really need will likely hurt you more than help you.
There is a very good reason that being a pack rat has a negative image. And that is because it usually brings in a negative result.
Saving is great, saving things you don't need to save is not so great.

Saving is great, but saving with a purpose it better. Saving things you don't need, or can't reasonably be expected to use is actually worse than not saving at all. It is all about value.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Stepping back

People go just where there will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it's later than it seems
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it's too late for me
Doctor, my eyes 

-Jackson Browne


Many times when you play a game of Lexulous, the moves just appear and you know exactly what you want to play.  In a lot of cases you setup that move and you play within seconds of opening the game. Other times you search around and you see the best move fairly quickly and you play it. That adds up to the majority of the time. 
But, there are exceptions. 
There are those other instances where no move appears, no matter how you search or concentrate. You have some different options here when you approach this problem. You can simply make the best move you can come up with at the time, knowing that it isn't the best move you can actually make. Or secondly, you can stare at the screen for a very long time in the hopes you will unearth a move just by working hard at it.
My lesson for the day is the third possibility, one I have begun to use a lot more in Lexulous and a lot more in life.
Sometimes you just need to stop and step back and take your time.
The answer will appear. That answer you don't see now, that you are looking for, that you need, it will just appear. Well, in truth it was always there, but you just don't see it. But, you will see it. Life just works that way, if you let it. 
It might be lucky that you stumble on it. Possibly your mind can be fresher at a later time. Or, you might see someone else in another game use that move and you apply it to the game you are having trouble with.
All of those are possibilities. But only if you step back and get some distance from the problem. Sometimes the best work isn't hard work, but distance and time to let things be. It is a hard lesson for most of us to grasp, as we are taught otherwise, but it is something that seems to work very well for me.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Find out why you are losing and stop doing that.

 There aren't many people who like losing. Some take it more seriously than others, but if we had our choice most of us would rather win. That is human nature and a big part of the reason why we are the surviving ancestors of those who have made it this far.
I play to win. I admit that. I don't take it so seriously that it bothers me to no end when I lose, but I do try to make the best effort I can to win, and at times I am very focused when I am playing any game.
Last week my softball team was in a do-or-die playoff game. A guy on my team noted how I had really stepped up the week before with some clutch hits and timely defense to help the team win the game (the only game we won all year while I was on the team). He asked me if I brought my "game face" this week. I jokingly stated that when I show up and step between those lines,  my game face is always on. I wasn't just joking. I like to have fun playing, and I joke around a lot when I do, but I am very focused on playing and playing to win.
I like to think that if I succeed, if I win, it isn't luck. I get results because I make the effort and I learn what it takes to achieve within the abilities I have. Lexulous is no different.
Very rarely is it luck. Luck evens out over time and you wont lose very often because you are unlucky. You are losing because you are making mistakes and you aren't taking steps to correct that. It is as simple as that. One bad break to do with luck might decide the game at one point, but more than likely you played poorly enough to be in that position in the first place.
Winners figure out what they are doing wrong and they stop doing it. They get better because they are observant, and they learn, and they improve. And they give their best effort. That is why they win and losers lose.
Today's lexulous lesson: Stop whining about how things are going against you. Find out why you are losing (at games and in life) and then stop doing that.

"I'm winning. And I don't intend on losing again." 

-Santana

Lexulous Life Lessons: Percentages.

I have always been fascinated with math. And very good at it. I like to figure out percentages and make decisions based on them. At times, when I review the mistakes I have made in my life, I think I've made a bad decision which became a bad result because I didn't play the percentage that should have been obvious to me and in my favor. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. No matter how much I like to think otherwise, in spite of my percentage decisions, I will make more mistakes in the future.
To me, life is all about possibility, probability and percentages. We make decisions in life, and we do that based on the likelihood of success.
If you play Lexulous enough, and pay attention while doing it, you learn which are the percentage plays and which are not. You won't win every time with the percentage move you make, but you will most of the time. Of course, life is like that as well.
Should I cross the road? 
Will I likely get there before that car reaches me?
When you answer those questions you make a decision based on it. If you don't think you will make it then you just wait for a better opportunity. It is one of those decisions where you can't be wrong. You can't probably beat that car to the spot, because it is a car moving at a rapid speed, and you are a person with limited speed and size. The car will win. So, unless you are certain you will win that contest, you wait for another opportunity. You can't be wrong even once in this case. You figured out the percentages and realized that they were against you and unless you are 100% certain, or have a secret death wish you don't cross the road.
Most decisions in life are not so clear cut.
Can I trust that friend? Probably. I usually make good decisions there. But, I have been wrong before. People I have trusted as friends have screwed me before. But, many more haven't.
Is that girl the right one for me? I think so. It seems so. But, the divorce rate is so high. Maybe those people just made bad decisions and didn't weigh the percentages. What if I am wrong? 
Should  I change my job,  give up the security for a better opportunity? Will I end up richer, happier and more satisfied? Or poorer, unhappy and distraught? 
We do the best we can with the information we have and the intellect we have to work with.
In Lexulous, the decisions are obviously not so clear cut or life changing and/or threatening, but the process is the same. If I hold that bingo, or wait for a letter to complete it, what is the likelihood that it will work out for me? You make this decision based on past experience and basic laws of averages of supply and demand, and at times, luck. Probably is the best guide you can use.
There is only one Z and Q. If you need either of those to make your move, it is a low percentage probability that you will get it and it is probably wise not to. If you need a vowel, of which there are many, it is probably a wise move. On top of that, you can quickly count how many are left by checking the board to see, and then figuring out the likelihood you will get one in the time needed.
This is very much like counting cards in Blackjack. Not everyone can do it, not everyone wants to do it, but it can be done. Of course, there are levels to which you can do it. Some can narrow it down to a very high probability, almost a certainty, while others can sort of do it and make it strong possibility. Not everyone makes informed decisions, and not everyone wants to. I do.
The lesson for today is that you can and should make decisions based on likely outcomes. You do this because you have some sort of experience and/or knowledge to guide you. At some point, you don't even realize you are doing it anymore, but you are. It won't always work out, but you almost always will keep trying to operate on this level. Whether that is a good or bad thing only you can decide, but it is highly probable that you will keep doing it.
It is the nature of people, and game players.  

Lexulous Life Lessons: When life throws you a curve, hit it anyway

You have played your best game. Made every move that you wanted to. You have gathered up a decent lead. Then, out of the blue, your opponent makes a great move and the next move you make sticks you with a bunch of crappy letters. The game is near the end, and you have been thrown a curve ball. What to do? Happened to me this week and it has happened before.
Some just give up and figure that luck has gone against them. True, it has. But that is only one possible reaction. The other reaction is to adjust and make the best of it. When you are expecting a fastball and life throws you a curve ball, you adjust and hit the curve ball. Brooding about expecting a fastball and getting a curve ball will do you no good. Regroup. Look for new opportunities, strategies, chances. Make the best of what you have got. You might win. You might lose. But at least give it your best shot. You will certainly win more than your share if you still give it your best shot. Sure, you will still lose some of those, but in those cases, you tip your hat to your opponent and realize that they are good as well and you can't expect to win them all.
But what you can be sure of, in the Lexulous Life lesson, is that if you don't regroup and do your best, you are almost certain to lose every time.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Cut your losses before you end up holding the bag

Most people are fairly positive and hope for the best.  We are taught that as children. Of course, not everything always works out. People get sick, they die. People lose their jobs, they don't always find a better one. People fall in love,  sometimes they fall out of love. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.
When you play Lexulous, you are aware there are certain letters that can make or break you. They can go either way. The Q is just such a letter. 
We learn in school that almost every word that starts with a Q has a U after it. As well, there aren't many words that have a Q in the middle of it, or end with Q, and of those that do, they are very rare in Lexulous. Being that you have to connect a letter to any word to make a new one, it makes it that much tougher to use the Q.
However, the Q is a high value letter for that reason, and if you can use it wisely, you can make a very big score, and in some way, it can win you a game. It can, conversely, lose you the game if you get stuck with it at the end.
There are only 3 U's in Lexulous and one Q. The U is also a very bad letter most of the time, and if you get stuck with it at the end of the game you can lose because you can't place it. So,  for the most part,  you get rid of it when you can and aren't holding it when the Q comes along.
Now, skilled players know that there are more words than just the Q followed by the U. There is QI, QAT, QAID and a few others that allow you to score. You can also go the other way, and make SUQ and there are others of that kind as well. For the most part though, holding the Q for any amount of time will lose you more games than you will win. Hoping for an opportunity to use it is just that, hope. It is not a valid overall strategy.

I can safely say that I have lost more games holding the Q than won games because I held it and then played it at the right time. Mostly, as in life,  when the chance is there, even if it isn't the best move, you should use it and get rid of it, and take a smaller score instead of no score. If you hold it too long, the asset can become a liability. 
In this way, it is much like stocks. If you hold a stock forever, hoping for the absolute highest selling price,  that price might not ever come,  and you hold it long enough that that small profit you might have made has turned into a big loss.

So, the lesson for the day: Dump the Q, cut your losses before you end up holding the bag, a bag which could end up with a bomb in it.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Losing sight of what really matters

Playing Lexulous can expose you up close to some of your biggest weaknesses. Mine has always been the temptation to be fixated on one thing and zone everything else out, to the detriment of my overall well being.
Case in point.
I have learned over time that getting a bingo can be a very successful way of playing Lexulous and scoring enough points to beat the better players. However, somewhere along the way, I started playing to get bingos more than I played to simply play and win the game. I would save letters in the hope of making a bingo, go maybe 3 or 4 turns not scoring much, and in the end, make my bingo and incur a net loss in points. In short, I was addicted to the thought that making bingos wins games.
It doesn't.
Making bingos when they are there wins games. When they are not there, then you should just play your best move and score in other ways. Holding letters so that you can make a bingo means you don't score as well when you are not making bingos, and over a long game, you lose a lot more trying to make the bingos than you would if you just played your best move every time. In short, you become addicted to the bingo and you make poor decisions in the pursuit of it. Sounds very much like being addicted to drugs, and it sounds like that because it is exactly like that. Once it grabs you it can destroy you. So now, I have come to the conclusion that playing for the bingo is a losing strategy. If the bingo is there, then you play it. You should look long and hard and see if you have one. Many times you do and you don't even realize it. Not playing the bingo when it is there is just throwing away points and you will lose if you do that as well. But if you don't have one, then you don't and you should not save letters to make the bingo on the following turn. It is a losing strategy. Take what you have, make the next play and then try and get the bingo on the next turn. Just like any drug or affliction, when you get addicted to it, you lose sight of what really matters. In Lexulous, winning the game matters, not making bingos. In life, seeing all there is to see hopefully assures you of maximizing your potential. If you only stick to one life strategy and become addicted to it, you are never likely to achieve your maximum potential.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Don't practice your golf swing on the course

 I played a lot of golf and tennis when I was growing up. I was fairly good at both,  but I was also a very hard practiser, reader of new techniques and methods and an overall tinkerer with my game.
After a while, you learn something about how to go about that successfully. More about that at the end.
Lexulous is a somewhat simple game. Make your best word or score each time in the hope of scoring the most points at the end of the game. That is the simple version.  But those that play well know there is much more to it than that. There are very complex variables at play most of the time with the better players who play to win. I am one of those. 
We all have a strategy,  something that we think works well for us and will lead us to winning most of the games we play. I have one, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. As I go along, I make alterations in my strategy to try and hone my game and become that much a better player.
One thing I have learned though, in Lexulous and in golf and tennis,  and just generally in life,  is that you don't try out your theories in the middle of the game. After the game is over, you may analyze what you did, what went wrong or right and then alter your strategy for later. However, doing it in the middle of the game is a sure way to lose. 
Part of the reason I play some lesser players is to try out my theories and see how they work, with the knowledge that if they are not effective,  I can just revert back to my old style and still beat that player. They are basically "test drive" players.
In golf and in tennis you learn that you don't practice your swing on the course or on the court. You save that for the driving range or when you are just practicing with others. When it is time to compete, you go with your original plan or what got you there. If you don't, you are sure to lose if only because you simply don't know how to execute what you haven't perfected yet.

Lexulous Life Lessons :Save the blanks, Sometimes

When you first start playing Lexulous, you really don't know much about what is going on. There are so many variables and you only learn as you make mistakes and realize what really matters, what works and what doesn't. When I first began playing I got rid of my blank tiles because they had zero point value and I thought they were worthless. As I began to play more, I realized that they were the most valuable tiles because of what you could do with them to make much bigger scores.
I have had the same experience when I first went to the horse races. I knew nothing, and I did fairly well in spite of that. As I learned more, I thought I knew things and bet according to that, only to find years later than I really didn't know much and the things I thought I knew were actually incorrect. I had made decisions based on what I thought was fact, what was sound reasoning, but in fact was very misguided logic. I at one time thought that overall race time and last quarter speed meant a lot. It does mean something, but in reality it is only one small piece of the actual puzzle.  There are many more variables that determine an overall race and who will win. I probably lost a lot of bets simply ignoring that reality, even though the results suggested I should have noticed that the horse that appeared to be the fastest didn't always win the race.
With Lexulous, I began to think that holding your blanks until just the right time was the proper move to make. For sure,  holding the blank is a good strategy and you can use them wisely to make a very big score. But at times it is better to use them right away, go for a big lead and then try to maintain it. There is no value in holding a blank, getting down by too many points, and then making a fairly large score but still losing the game because you let the other player get a big enough lead that it doesn't matter.
In that same way,  it doesn't matter if you have the fastest horse if the other horse has too big of a lead and there isn't enough race left to catch up,  no matter how fast you go.
So, the lesson I have learned from this is that you have to learn and develop a strategy, but, what you think you know might not be what is actually going on. The results, over a period of time will usually confirm or shoot down your theory. If the point of the game is to score the most points, then how you do that is not relevant. If that means playing your blank early, then you do that. If that means holding it for a larger score, then you do that. You have to be flexible and use your assets properly, or they aren't really assets.
If you have the fastest horse and you save that speed and don't get to use it all in that race, you might have the fastest horse but you wont win the race.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Pick your spots

We are all busy people and although we use facebook and some of us play games on it to pass the time and as a form of entertainment, we can only do so much. It is still a diversion and not our life.
When you play as many games as I do at any one time you can only take so much time for each move. I want to win every game and like to think I take the care to do that. But, at times I have to make choices on the kind of time I put toward each opponent.
For the most part, I play very tough opponents and one bad move can pretty much mean a loss in that game. I have a few that even when I play a perfect game, they still beat me. They are that good. There is some luck of the tiles involved in that, but at best it is a 50/50 proposition with them.
However, there are some very good players that I can beat most of the time if I take the time to do that. Then, there are others who are good enough, but will not beat me unless I mess up somehow (which also does happen from time to time, I am not perfect).
In horse racing, you learn that even though you can win by 20 lengths, you don't need to. They pay you the same first prize winning money whether you win by 20 lengths or by half a length. Saving something for the next race and possibly stiffer competition is the wise move if you want to be successful overall. You don't hold back, but you don't always push for your maximum effort if you don't need that to be successful on that particular day.
What I have learned in Lexulous, and in life, is that you have to budget and manage your time.
You have to pick your spots and manage your time. You know there are some players who are not that good and you don't need to make a perfect move to beat them, while others you do. Once you have the game won, even though your natural tendency is to make the best move you can right to the end, you simply cannot do that and have the time to compete against others who demand your full attention.
The lex lesson here is that you have to pick your spots and know when to give your all, and when to give just enough to win and save a little more for the others.

Lexulous Life Lessons: The old adages are true

"We learn by doing. There is no other way."
-John Holt

When I first started playing Lexulous I got my butt kicked daily. At one point my record was 1 win and 27 losses. However, I was paying attention and learning as I lost. I had noticed that the better players were making a lot of bingos and I wasn't making any. A bingo in Lexulous is using your 7 or 8 letters in a word combo to gain an extra 40 or 50 points in addition to the points you get for the word you already played. A player who can make 3 or 4 bingos in a game is likely to win that game. And does, most of the time.

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks"
-John Fitzherbert

If we are educated-or just paying attention-we learn what works and how to do things better. After a while, that knowledge can become a habit. As better ways of doing things come along it can become hard to adapt and change our strategy. This occurs especially if what we learned and applied in the first place seemed to work very well for a while. Even when we get evidence and results that the strategy that we thought was very good maybe isn't as good as we thought many of us stick to it. We make excuses and call it bad luck or circumstances and still stick to the now losing strategy. Dakota tribal wisdom states that when you discover that you are

"riding a dead horse",

The best strategy is to dismount.

As I watched the players make the bingos, it seemed they made a lot of words ending in "ing". I thought it was wise to try and play for those words and whenever I got an "I" and "N" or a "G" I kept it, even if I could not use it at first. Even if I could make decent scores with those letters, unless they were bingos I did not and just held those letters until I could make the bingo and place it. In the long run, I ended up making the bingo, but losing the game in trying to make the bingo. I made the one big score, while my opponent gradually got enough of a lead on me until it didn't matter either way.
As time went on, I started to save the "e" and the "r" to try and make words ending in "er" or "ers". Again, as I saved the letters, I began to always get behind and lose games I should have otherwise won. I noticed I was doing this, but in spite of that I still kept doing it. To this day, I am still doing it, although I am making an effort now to break that habit.

"Experience is the best teacher"
-Thomas Taylor
 
As I now have become a much better player I still from time to time try to use this losing strategy. I catch myself and sometimes I can stop myself, sometimes I don't. The point of the matter is to make the most points to win the game. If that means making a bingo, or many bingos, then so be it. If that means making two letter words that add up to a lot of points, then so be it. If that means (as it does in most cases) a combination of both based on the circumstances of the letters, then so be it.
The lesson for the day: Learn what works, but pay attention to the fact that you may have been mistaken and it doesn't actually work as well as you thought it does. The results will actually dictate the validity of your strategy.
You must adapt and continue to grow and not get set in your ways or locked in to one strategy for life.

"Winners make winning moves, losers don't"

-Mark David

Lexulous Life Lessons: You can't please Everybody So Stop Trying To

I like to play steady. Being that I do, I seek out like minded players who also do the same. I find if you don't do that, then it is hard to stay in the flow of the game. When you play as many games as I do at any given time and also have a strong desire to win and do your best, that comes with the territory.
In some ways, that puts a bit of pressure on yourself. To play steady and play your turn on a very consistent basis means sometimes you don't get your work done. Of course, when you don't play your turn when others expect you to you hear from them, because they are similar to you and expect you to play steady.
I think we all have the basic instinct to please others, and in many instances that comes at the expense of your own happiness and personal health at times. It is a tough thing to be selfish and look after yourself first. Being selfish has a negative tone to it, but in many respects it is a positive thing. You can't really help and consider others if you wont do that for yourself as well.

"you can't please everyone so you got to please yourself"

-Ricky Nelson

So, my Lexulous Life lesson for the day:
Trying to keep up with playing all the time because you want to please others is not realistic. you cant please everyone all the time and you shouldn't try. Do what is realistic and the best you can relative to all the other factors in your life and seek out those who understand that.

Lexulous Life Lessons: It's about desire

Being the helpful sort of guy that I am, I try to help those who seem to want and ask for it. That goes for pretty much everything in life, be it life and love advice, or anything else. If you ask I will do my best to help.
 When I play Lexulous I come across all sorts of players. Some just play for fun, others want to win and others play for a mixture of both. When I encounter some of those who want to be better players but don't know what to do, I am willing to give them tips and advice so they can achieve that if they want to.
In my attempt to help those who have asked for it I have encountered two types. Those that really want to be better and those that really don't. At the end of this blog, I will state why I think that is.

 Talent is a big component in anything you do. Without it, no matter how well intentioned you are, you can only go so far in your achievement goals. The Little Engine That Could is a great fairy tale, but I have learned that no matter how much I want it, I am never going to outrun the fastest man on earth, or even the fastest man in my neighborhood. I was born a slow runner and no matter what I do, nothing will change that. But...I can run as fast as I was born to run.

  
While talent matters, developing that talent is something that successful people do. It is great that you are smart, but if you don't learn how to use those smarts to your advantage, then you are just a smart person without developed skills. That is a good part of what makes the average person exceptional.
The final piece is motivation and drive. How much do you really want it? Yes, you have some natural talent and you have learned the ins and outs of the game or endeavour you pursue. But how much do you really want it? Does it really matter that much that you achieve your highest potential?

Being a former horse trainer, one thing you learn if you want to be successful is to spot desire and determination. Speed and size matter. Gait and soundness of limbs matter. Those are important. But what separates the winners from the losers is the desire to want to win and to do what it takes to achieve that. This assumes you are at a level where you can compete. Here is a video of a horse that was known to simply refuse to lose. He won his last 28 races against the best that the sport had to offer.
In the below video, he was clearly beat and came back on to beat the acknowledged best horse (next to Cam Fella) at the time.

  
You have to want to be good at something to be good.
I have taught lots of people. Some take what you teach them and make sure they employ that to win as many games as they can. Others simply don't. They don't have the desire to win or achieve. They make a half hearted effort, but when it comes right down to it they only try as hard as they feel like, and thus get the results you would expect from someone who does that.
Knowledge is power, but desire is success.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Take the time

When I was growing up, there was a commercial that was local to Canada for Brador beer.  Most of you have never heard of that brand, but it was very popular in the 1960's and 1970's. The slogan went something like this"

"Brador, take the time"

The indication was that their beer was better because they took the time to brew it right and you would enjoy it better and longer because you took the time to find a better beer.

Recently, I lost a game because I made my move too fast.  It was a very good move, so I was happy with it and just played it. Sadly,  it wasn't good enough. I could have made an extra 20 points if I had taken the time and care to look, and make a great move instead of just a very good move. I ended up losing that game by 15 points. It is something I have done way too much.
In life, we all do that. We do what is "good enough" and whatever we can do under the circumstances. That is fine when we must do that, for various reasons, but after a while we make it a habit. Because of that, we underachieve and never reach our full potential.
Now, I am not saying ponder each and every move for hours, but just take a little more care and attention to get it right. A few seconds can go a long way to a bright future of success. You have to pick your spots. But, the key is picking those spots. When you get to the point that you don't even bother to do that anymore you have settled into a comfort zone that leads to no further advancement for yourself.
In life, we can do the same. Sure, you can't think over everything in life to the point it paralyzes your every move, but at times a little careful thought might lead to less problems down the road. There is a time and place and certain things don't need too much thought. What to have for dinner tonight or where to go to have fun don't need much thought. But, should I really buy that house? Can I afford it? Do I need to go back to school so I can improve myself?
Maybe what you have for dinner tonight isn't the important question. Maybe the right question is: Why do I keep eating this way, in this unhealthy way which leads to all the health and lifestyle problems I have? and...How can I change that systemic problem so I can better my life?
Taking a little extra time now to "get it right" can go a long way to making your dreams, goals and hopes come to true. They might not anyway, but they are more likely to.

Lexulous Life Lessons: Don't Be Predictable

Recently, a friend who I play quite regularly mentioned that she was losing to me because she was getting lousy tiles lately. Before that, she won her fair share. I actually taught her how to play and she got to the point that she was a better player than me. I explained to her that the reason she was now losing to me was not because of her unlucky tiles, but because she had become predictable and I pretty much knew what move she was going to make most of the time. Being that I figured out her pattern, I basically set her up so I could make the moves I wanted.
Part of being good at anything is learning the ins and outs of the game. Figuring out what works, building your skill set and paying attention to the details. Focus also goes a long way to determining whether or not you will be successful. Without mastering these factors, at some point you will come to a level where others are better than you. There is always someone who is better than you, and even if you attain their level, once you surpass them and move forward there is a better challenge and you find out if you can climb that mountain as well.
But, no matter what level you attain, no matter how good you get, once you begin to interact with any one person, the key factor (all other things being equal) is that they (if they are paying attention) learn your pattern and know what you are likely to do.
Some key examples of this are found in sports. In baseball, if the batter knows what pitch is coming, no matter how hard you throw or how great a curve ball you have, he is likely to hit it. Part of the advantage is that uncertainty of what comes next. Here is a short excerpt from a pitcher who noted that in a game he pitched on Sunday.

 "He didn’t reveal his whole hand the first time through the order,” Farrell said after the game, adding that Cecil’s improved fastball command allowed him to better utilize his secondary pitches. “He kept the game under control, threw a lot of strikes and it was an encouraging outing for him.”

Cecil himself said his curveball is his most improved pitch — it’s tighter and has more depth — but his overall command is what makes the biggest difference.

“Just being able to control the ball a lot better, with all my pitches, and throwing to both sides of the plate.”

He stayed ahead in the count against most Phillies batters — especially early in the game — and while he didn’t overpower, he had the likes of Placido Polanco, Hunter Pence and Carlos Ruiz frozen and fooled by his breaking pitches.

Cecil, who threw 55 of his 87 pitches for strikes, said both pitches the Phillies went yard on were cutters. On Mayberry’s, he left it elevated in the zone, while to Thome he threw successive pitches with the same kind of movement, and the veteran simply caught up it. “Just bad pitch selection,” Cecil said afterward.

 -Brett Cecil on his pitching outing Sunday, June 17, 2012


In horse racing, some horses are always frontrunners and some horses always take back and come at the end. If you know a horse likes to go to the front of the race and you can prevent him from doing that easily or successfully, then you are likely to take away his chance to win. In that vein, if you are a frontrunner, sometimes it is better to not go for the lead, just so that others don't think they have a read on you. I remember a horse named Shady Hill Pride, who was noted for going right to the back of the field, sitting dead last until very near the end, then making one huge move and most of the time winning. He did this for years. It was his pattern. Every driver knew that and drove him that way. One day, a new driver was hired and he decided this one time to go for the front. No others in the race expected this of him and he simply surprised them and got away from them before they figured it out. After that, he varied his style and it was simply a matter of class that determined his success, not style. The horse could actually go very fast at the start, but no driver even tried that with him and the horse got very used to just going to the back of the field. Once he was put on the lead, it rejuvenated him.
Around the same time,  there was a horse called Billy Ocelot. He always went right to the front and raced that way. Sometimes he was successful and sometimes he was not. Other drivers knew if they made him work for the lead, he would still attempt to get it and would not finish well. His style completely determined his results. He rarely ever tried to race from behind. When he did, he just didn't try as hard.
 In basketball, it is common knowledge that certain players always want to make their move in a certain direction or shoot from a certain spot on the court. If you are such a player, then the person guarding you is usually going to defend you accordingly. That gives you the chance to take them by surprise, easily, by doing something they don't expect. As well, from that point forward, they can't cheat and guard you a certain way for fear you will beat them with what they are leaving you.
So, the life lesson for today is this: Get good at what you do. Learn the basics and learn from others, but once you achieve that level, don't be predictable. Don't let your opponent think they know what you are going to do. With respect to life,  don't be predictable if you can avoid it. Try new things. Change things up, even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. It might not be the best move you can make,  but it can help you in the long run.