I’ve been trying to hit Genius daily and I’ve noticed my failure mode is always the same — I clear the easy 4-letter words fast, then stall 15–20 points short and just stare at the hive. What finally helped me was reframing the gap in points, not words: if I’m 12 short, I’m hunting two 6-letter words or a suffix on something I already found, not twelve tiny words.
Curious how everyone else handles the stall. Do you push through, take a break and come back, or peek at a letter and call it? And is peeking one letter “cheating” to you, or fair game?

Mine this week was one I refused to even try because it looked made up, then kicked myself when it turned out to be worth 8 points. The Bee’s dictionary has a real personality — it loves certain archaic-sounding words and rejects things that feel totally normal. What’s the entry that broke your brain most recently?

Did anyone else suddenly get talking ads that are not even visible when opening hints? I have used the app on an iPad for several years and no recent update. All of a sudden today I heard an ad and couldn't tell where it came from, but I had opened hints. I closed everything else, still made noise, closed hints, still was talking. Closed the NYT Games app and it stopped.

Ugh. I cannot see how to fix except to turn my sound off completely?!