| The New York Times game Connections has become a daily obsession for millions around the world since launching in 2023. Sure, it doesn’t attract quite as many players as Wordle, but among the increasingly vital Games department at the Times, Connections has differentiated itself for one simple reason: it gets people fired up. “I do feel like the feedback that I get skews on the angry side,” Wyna Liu, the puzzle editor behind Connections, recently told InsideHook. “I get it. It’s like, I love being mad.” Aren’t the games supposed to be an entertaining respite from the news coverage? If you’re asking that question, you’ve obviously never played Connections. The puzzle is simple enough in its gameplay: a four-by-four grid of words or phrases that you must sort into categories. But it’s Liu’s unique linguistic and relational machinations that have turned it into a sensation with staying power. For the latest installment in our Who’s Next series, we spoke with Liu about her curious path to becoming a puzzle mastermind. | 