I received some disturbing news this morning, in the midst of the joyous holiday season. The news was delivered, online, by Sam Ezersky, a 26-year-old that loyal fans will undoubtedly recall from my column of Nov. 13, 2023 titled “Every day, a genius!”

As editor of the online New York Times Spelling Bee, young Sam decided, without my input(!), to introduce a new feature* along with each day’s puzzle. Now included with the Bee are cumulative performance statistics, informing me of the number of puzzles I have attempted to solve (499), the total number of words I have found (15,502), the number of pangrams I have uncovered (572), and the number of times I have achieved the rank of Genius (338).

Dear reader, I expect your first thought might be, “How cool, Gene! You now have a running tab on how you’ve been doing without having to do any tedious calculations.” This response makes perfect sense if you are not a dedicated Spelling Be-er. In reality, my reaction was one of shock and dismay, followed by diminished self-esteem and self-flagellation. I’m still healing. (Note to young Sam: “Systems Thinking” warns us to always be aware of the unintended consequences of our actions.)

The devastation I experienced pertains, obviously, to the total number of times I have achieved Genius: 334. That’s 334 times out of 495 puzzle attempts — a measly 67.7% of the time! After digesting this upsetting information, I immediately began explaining away the results:

■In the early days of Bee-ing, I must have been less committed and probably gave up quickly.

■I was hung over on several mornings (completely untrue, which gives you a glimpse into the less-than-wild nature of my nightlife.

■Some mornings I am not in a Spelling Bee mood (which makes sense but, remarkably, is never the case, raising the question, “What the heck is wrong with me?!”

■The data is just plain wrong.

Now, column-follower, you may be mumbling, “Who the heck cares? What kind of person uses the words “shock,” “dismay,” and “devastation” to describe reactions to solving a dumb puzzle? Why am I wasting my time reading this stuff?”

Points well-taken. My apologies. But sometimes we all must suffer before arriving at a place of understanding or enlightenment. Please allow me to enlighten you.

One’s level of self-esteem is determined by a combination of factors, including upbringing, friendships, mental and physical health, work environment, economic status, mass media, and more. We all experience the world and our place in it differently, but we are similar in that our self esteem is influenced by our beliefs on the type of people we are, what we can do, our strengths, our weaknesses and our expectations for the future.

I have been fortunate in my life. I was raised in a loving family and have been surrounded by love for my entire life. I love my work as a teacher and, for my age, have good physical health. (As for the state of my mental faculties, let’s just say opinions vary.)

Enter Sam Ezersky. I believe young Sam’s mission in life (I have no concrete proof of this) is to destroy the self-esteem of Spelling Bee solvers and to then double down on this destruction by rubbing our noses in our failures. Waking up and doing the Bee each morning requires persistence, focus, perseverance, two mugs of coffee and a high level of boredom. I wonder if our young enfant terrible of puzzlists truly appreciates what it takes, morning after morning, month after month, to set about this task.

Now, 499 puzzles later, I am deemed a failure 32.3% of the time! Well, what is there to say? How does one react to such news? And Sam don’t give me the line that “Amazing,” the second best ranking, does not equate with failure. When I came home from school with B+ grades, my dear mom didn’t say, “Wonderful, my son.” She asked, “So how hard would it be to get an A?”

Maybe I should rethink the messages I’m receiving from young Sam and Mom: ultimately, dealing with life’s hardships leads to higher self-esteem.

My siblings just informed me that this feature is not new and that I was simply unaware of it.

So, regarding this column, as Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “Never mind.”

Gene Stamell solves Spelling Bees in Leverett. He can be reached at gstamell@gmail.com.