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。