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Where, not what

A word like LEFT sits somewhere around a centre: answer where it is, not what it says. More clashes, the diagonals, less time as you climb.

  • Attention and speed
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

A direction word — LEFT, RIGHT, UP or DOWN — appears on a small board beside a centre cross. Answer where it sits, not what it says: LEFT written to the right of the cross is "right". Keys 1 to 4 pick.

The word is read whether you like it or not, and when it disagrees with its place it pulls. Levels raise the share of words that disagree, make the disagreement the opposite direction, add the four diagonals, and shorten the time, which closes on 0.8 s.

Settings turn the rule around (answer what it says, ignoring where), or mix the two with a cue in the centre — WHERE or SAYS — and swap the words for arrows.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises answering to one feature of a thing while another, more automatic one, disagrees. It improves this task, not attention or self-control in general.

Learn

How to get better at where, not what: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Look at the centre cross first. If the rule is cued, the centre shows WHERE or SAYS instead of the cross — read it before anything else.
  2. For WHERE, find the word as a block of ink and judge only which way it lies from the centre. Do not read its letters.
  3. Press the key for that direction. The options are always in this order: 1 Left, 2 Right, 3 Up, 4 Down, and with the diagonals 5 Up-left, 6 Up-right, 7 Down-left, 8 Down-right.
  4. For SAYS, read the word (or the arrow) and ignore its place entirely.

Techniques and tricks

  • Learn the keys as places

    Practise until 1 means “left of the cross” with no thought of the word Left. When the key is tied to the place, the printed word has less to grab.

  • See ink, not letters

    Let your eyes go soft on the word so it is a dark patch. Where the patch sits is the whole answer; what it spells is the trap.

  • Distance never matters

    The board is 5×5 and the word sits one or two steps out from the centre. LEFT two steps above the cross is “up” just as it is one step above.

  • Check both axes for diagonals

    Ask two quick questions: is it above or below the cross’s row, and is it left or right of its column? Two yeses make a diagonal.

    e.g. Above and to the right: 6, Up-right. On the cross’s row and to the left: 1, Left.

  • Decide the rule before you look

    With cues on, the rule can change from one question to the next. Read WHERE or SAYS, say it to yourself, and only then look at the word.

As the levels climb

  • The share of words that disagree with their place rises from half to 70% at level 1 and 85% at level 4. From level 4 most clashes name the opposite direction — LEFT on the right — which pulls hardest.
  • At level 2 the four diagonals arrive, with keys 5 to 8 and 0.4 s more time. Learn the order: the two Ups, then the two Downs, left before right in each pair.
  • The clock starts at 3.5 s and tightens from level 3, every level after level 4, closing towards 0.8 s without reaching it. By then only a key tied to the place keeps up.

Traps to avoid

  • Answering what the word says: LEFT to the right of the cross answered Left. The working names the pull to resist.
  • Calling a diagonal straight: a word up and to the left answered Up, because the eye found only one of its two offsets.
  • In cued mode, using the last question’s rule. A SAYS after three WHEREs is where the slip comes.
  • Mixing up the diagonal keys: 6 is Up-right and 7 is Down-left. A wrong key there is a key slip, not a reading slip — learn the order.

How to practise

  • Once “Where it is” is steady, set “Answer” to “What it says”: now the place is the pull, and the word is the answer.
  • Then try “Either — read the cue in the centre”, which adds a switch between the two rules on top of the conflict.
  • Set “Show” to “Arrows (←)” or “A mix” to practise the same conflict with arrows, which are read without words.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More attention and speed

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