Hi folks, welcome to Wordspine. I'm Ben Yoskovitz, Founding Partner at Highline Beta. I also write a newsletter on startups, product management, AI and more called Focused Chaos. This game is most definitely a side project.
When my kids were young, we used to play what we called the "license plate game" where we'd try and make words out of the letters in license plates, exactly how Wordspine works. It was fun and distracted the kids. (BTW, if you look up "license plate game" you'll find something else, I don't think it's as cool.)
You'd win by blurting out a word first. Occasionally, we'd let someone else say a second word, but we wouldn't celebrate them as much. Being the most competitive out of everyone, I would only point out license plates that I already had a word for...basically, I cheated. Although I would sometimes give the kids a bit of time. As my father always says, "It was fun AND educational!"
You could cheat at Wordspine too. Just ask an AI tool to come up with all the words. But where's the fun in that?
I hope you enjoy Wordspine. I'm going to keep improving it, collecting feedback and seeing how people like it. You can always reach me at byosko@gmail.com.