Life Lessons from Online Scrabble

By Kwaku Kensen Frimpong

Life is like an online game of Scrabble. So sometime in mid-February, my beloved cousin Abena Birago got me to download a Scrabble app so we could play online. After about a month of playing, I was in my place-of-epiphany (my shower😆) this morning when the light bulb went off: life is like a game of online Scrabble.

Life has been described as a game. Even Shakespeare called us “players,” and in many respects, that is true. Life is incredibly multifaceted, and many elements of games find interesting correlations to life’s experiences. I’ve found in my life that many games have a key: a line of thought or perspective that unlocks a winning mentality. It’s finding that key, that perspective, that led me to compare the game of life to online Scrabble.

So a little background: a Scrabble board has 225 tile spaces (15 × 15). Each player gets 7 tiles at a time, with the number of used tiles replenished from a central bag until all tiles are exhausted. Tiles have a letter each, with different numerical values assigned; a few tiles are blank with no value and can be assigned any letter by the player. Some tiles double or triple the letter value, others double or triple the word value.

Here’s the key to the game: it’s not about how good you are at forming words; it’s about how good you are at using the tile spaces to increase your score.

In online Scrabble, the dictionary automatically validates a word, so you don’t even have to know the word(s) beforehand. That makes any spelling skill good but not essential, ‘cos sometimes you don’t even know the word exists, which translates to the life lesson: making an attempt is better than not trying at all, cos there’s a good probability you’ll move forward or gain some ground. Not trying just leaves you at the same spot.

The key to scoring isn’t the length of the word. The length of the word just increases the probability of having a better score. The key is to focus on which spaces you’re placing your tiles, so as to double or even triple your score, which translates into the life lesson: effort is important, ‘cos without effort, nothing gets done. Even more important than effort is where it’s placed. By placing effort in the right/ smart place, you get more for every unit of effort.

Every player gets 7 tiles, and the value of those tiles is completely random, yet one player gets the highest score at the end of the game: there are things we get equally in life, like 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour. There are other things that vary, and others may get more than we do, or vice versa. What matters is how we use what we receive and not how much we receive.

The highest value tile spaces are at the extremity of the board, and number 8 out of the total of 225. It’s impossible for the first player on the first attempt to reach any of the 8. Lesson: Value always takes time. There’s a minimum amount of work that must be done before we realise any value in life. If we’re not willing to do the work, we never realise the value.

The first word played automatically gets a double value, yet the player who plays the first word does not automatically win. Lesson: some people start life in an undeniably better position than others. It has very little to do with how they end life.

Although every player has a limited number of tiles, winning players know every tile already on the board is an option when it’s a turn to play and should be maximised. Lesson: you’re not limited to your own resources. To win, learn to leverage the earlier efforts of others: their experience, knowledge, and other resources.

Blank tiles are versatile/ utility tiles. It’s completely up to the player to assign a letter, but the letter assigned remains fixed and has no value. Opportunities in life are like the blank tile: their end-value depends on how we use them, how prepared we are for them, and we often get only one chance to use them well.

When all’s said and done, play well your part. Play to win.

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