In Life, as in Wordle, Success Often Depends on Where You Start人生就像Wordle，成功与否取决于起点

As a writer， words are my tools， so I fell quickly for Wordle1， a simple but challenging online game that lets me sharpen my tool kit. Just a mix of five letters and six tries， but it offers unswerving fun and wonder. Since the rise of the Wordle phenomenon， I noticed how some ascribe their Wordle successes to their own merit and strategy while others acknowledge the role of luck.

身为作家，词是我的利器，因此我很快便迷上了Wordle这款简单却富有挑战性的在线游戏，它让我打磨了自己的用词能力。虽然只是五个字母的排列组合和六次尝试的机会，但它让我乐在其中，惊叹不已。Wordle兴起之后，我发现有些人将他们在这款游戏上的成功归因于自身能力和策略，有些人则认为是运气的眷顾。

Let’s say you start out your first try by guessing three letters correctly and in the right spot. This means that you are already more than halfway to success， and still have five more tries. Your likelihood of success， while not guaranteed， is highly likely unless you go out of your way to blow your opportunity by making uninformed guesses.

假设你在第一次尝试时就猜对了三个字母，并且位置也正确。这意味着你已经成功了一大半，并且还有五次机会。虽然不能保证你百分之百会成功，但只要你别瞎猜从而浪费了机会，成功的机率还是很高的。

In life， the great luck of this advantageousness is being born into privilege. This might look like being born into a white， upper-middle-class family with socioeconomic stability. While being born into this demographic certainly doesn’t guarantee success， it gives you a good foundation to jump ahead with fewer obstacles.

在人生中，这种优势表现为生来就享有特权，比如出生在一个社会和经济地位稳定的中上阶层白人家庭。虽然这样的出身并不能确保成功，但它为你打下了良好的基础，未来的路途会更平坦。

In contrast， what if， on your first Wordle guess， you venture a word that has not a single correct letter. You now know which letters you don’t need， but you are barely further than where you started. You will have to use your precious remaining five guesses wisely or risk failure.

相反，如果你第一次尝试Wordle时猜了个单词，结果一个字母都没对上，那会怎样呢？此时你虽排除了部分字母，但进展几乎与开局无异。你必须用好剩下的五次宝贵机会，否则就可能会失败。

There are myriad life scenarios that can parallel this， whether it is being born into poverty or being born Black or brown. Perhaps you are born into a family whose parents are struggling in their careers because of their own inherited disadvantages.

现实中的种种境遇与此何其相似，比如出身贫寒，或者身为黑人、棕色人种。或许你的父母就因为种种先天的不利条件在职场步履维艰。

I was born to immigrant physician parents from India， and although they didn’t come from inherited wealth， they arrived in America having been trained in highly skilled professions that were in high demand. Thanks to my parents’ own success—due to a mix of hard work and luck—I left college with no college loan debt， enabling me to pursue， against their wishes， a career in the social change sector， where I hoped to make a difference. This afforded me the chance to take low-paying nonprofit and government jobs and internships， because I didn’t have to worry about paying off college loans alongside paying rent and living expenses.

我的父母是印度移民，都是医生出身，他们虽然没有继承什么家产，但来到美国时已经接受了高技能职业的培训，而这类职业在当时的需求很大。多亏了他们凭借努力和机遇所取得的成功，我大学毕业时没有背负任何学生贷款的债务。这让我能够违背他们的意愿投身于社会变革领域，希望有所作为。因此，我能够接受非营利组织、政府机构的低薪岗位和实习机会，因为我不用担心支付房租和生活开销的同时还要偿还学贷。

Education and its trappings are integral to helping us make good life choices and finding our paths. In Wordle， you build your knowledge from each previous try， so your advantages build on each other. Those with access to a strong education are more likely to find their careers through classes they take or professors and mentors who take an interest in them. Some find their way through family， friends， and acquaintances who offer them jobs and internships， sometimes based more on their relationships than on their merit.

教育及其附带资源对于帮助我们做出正确的人生选择和找到自己的人生道路至关重要。在Wordle中，每次尝试都能让你学到知识，优势就这样一点点累积起来。接受过优质教育的人更有可能通过所修的课程或关注他们的教授和导师找到适合自己的职业。有些人则通过家人、朋友和熟人获得工作和实习机会，这些机会有时更多是基于人脉而非个人实力。

I remember how， in the summer before my senior year of college， I had landed an internship in Philadelphia’s city government， but I wondered how I would cover rent and other expenses given that the internship paid only a small stipend. I happened to have a meeting with my college adviser who helped me apply on the spot for a scholarship （which happened to be due that very day） to cover those expenses. This internship led to my first job， which paved the way for my second job. Call it being at the right place at the right time—or more accurately， call it the luck offered by an elite education.

我记得在大四前的那个夏天，我在费城市政府找到了一份实习，但实习津贴微薄，并不足以支付我的房租和其他开销。就在我为此发愁时，碰巧我与大学辅导员有一次会面，他当场就帮我申请了一笔恰好当天截止的奖学金来支付这些费用。这份实习后来促成了我的第一份工作，而第一份工作又为第二份工作铺平了道路。这可以说是恰逢其时之幸，但更准确地说，是精英教育为我带来的机遇。

Conversely， when we stumble， which most of us do at some point， it is the strength of our networks that helps us get back up and keep trying until we reach our goal.

反过来看，在人生路上，我们难免会跌倒，也正是我们的关系网支撑着我们重新振作起来，继续尝试，直到实现目标。

My college classmate and friend Nicole Lucier happens to be a fellow Wordle enthusiast. She was born and raised in a white family by parents who came from working-class backgrounds but held aspirations for higher education. I asked her if she sees similar parallels in how circumstantial luck has affected her own life. “My social class now comes directly from my father’s ability to leap to the professional class via grad school，” Lucier says. “Through that leap， I grew up in a college town where my public high school was on par with many private prep schools. That education led me to be able to attend Bryn Mawr College， and our social position allowed us to qualify for loans without which attendance wouldn’t have been possible. From there， I had the benefit of elite graduate education， and the perception of myself as nonthreatening as a young white woman led me to get a job teaching as an adjunct despite not having a PhD.”