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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 3 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 3 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Order up!

These words are ways to prepare a specific food.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Words are ways you might order your breakfast protein.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is MakingEggs.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for February 3

• Bake

• Boil

• Scramble

• Pickle

• Coddle

• Poach

• Baste

• Making Eggs

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

A new WIRED report has pulled back the curtain on the inner workings of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the picture it paints is… troubling. According to the report, the department is being staffed by a crew of fresh-out-of-college hires — many with zero prior government experience. In fact, at least one of them is still in college.

These Musk loyalists, including newly appointed Office of Personnel Management Chief of Staff Amanda Scales, have played a key role in his ongoing efforts to expand influence across multiple federal agencies.

The investigation also found a common thread linking a few of these young recruits: billionaire Peter Thiel. Some of them have connections to the tech mogul's fellowship program, with his influence in the libertarian-leaning tech and political world having grown in recent years.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's DOGE team attempt takeover of USAID

While the DOGE executive order signed by Donald Trump technically limits Musk’s authority to the U.S. Digital Service, several of his allies — among them these young, inexperienced software engineers — have secured pivotal roles within the OPM and the General Services Administration. The latter is responsible for the construction, management, and preservation of federal buildings.

The WIRED report identified six young men, aged 19 to 24, who have been listed in internal OPM documents as either "experts" or "special advisors" to the agency's director. The engineers — Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran — previously served as interns for Musk or big tech companies like Meta before being fast-tracked unvetted into government roles.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on Meta's submission to Trump

Despite their limited experience, documents obtained by WIRED reveal that these individuals have been granted official U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) emails and A-suite level clearance. This access not only allows them to work on the top floor of the GSA but also grants them entry to the agency’s sensitive information and IT systems.

According to anonymous sources who spoke with WIRED, Edward Coristine — who only recently graduated high school and is now a freshman at Northeastern University — has already been sitting in on calls where GSA employees had to "go over code they had written and justify their jobs."

This latest revelation adds to the growing concerns surrounding Musk’s so-called "budget cuts," which increasingly look more like a power grab. The X and Tesla CEO has recently made moves to take control of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which oversees billions in foreign aid. Even more alarming, the unelected billionaire has now secured influence over the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems — the infrastructure responsible for managing the disbursement of the federal government’s massive $6 trillion budget.

While Musk and his allies insist they only have "read-only" access to the Treasury’s payment systems, the reality is unprecedented: an unelected group of unvetted tech operatives now wields direct influence over the U.S. government’s financial arteries.

The tool, called Deep Research, arrives days after OpenAI released another one, which shops for groceries and books restaurant reservations.

Severance fans, if you've ever wanted to read the wise words of Dr. Ricken Hale (Michael Chernus) for yourself, you're in luck. On Jan. 31, Apple Books released the first eight chapters of The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You, Ricken's self-help book that spurred Lumon Industries' Innies to action in Severance Season 1.

These are available in ebook format, or in audiobook format, with Chernus himself narrating.

The You You Are is the second Severance companion book to be released, with the first being 2022's The Lexington Letter. While The Lexington Letter is an epistolary thriller diving deep into Lumon's secrets, The You You Are is a mix of self-improvement advice and cringe comedy. What else would you expect from Ricken, who famously hosted a dinnerless dinner party?

SEE ALSO: 4 fascinating things we learned from the 'Severance' companion book

Apple Books' excerpt features several memorable lines from The You You Are that we heard in Season 1, like "they cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist" and "a society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip." Even "Destiny, An Acrostic Poem Experience" makes an appearance.

But the first eight chapters of The You You Are also flesh out our understanding of the often-infuriating Ricken, as well as give us more clues about the broader world of Severance. From Ricken's backstory to Lumon's interference in his work, here are four fascinating things we learned from The You You Are.

Lumon doesn't want people reading The You You Are. Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, and John Turturro in "Severance." Credit: AppleTV+

In Season 2, episode 3 of Severance, Ricken tells his wife Devon (Jen Tullock) that he is working with Lumon to write a version of The You You Are specifically for Innies. Of course, that version will completely undermine the original book's themes, but for Ricken, this is too big an opportunity to pass up.

Apple's released version of The You You Are goes one step further, implying that Lumon has completely derailed the publication of Ricken's work. In an introductory note, Ricken writes, "As you know, the book was meant to release nationwide this week, and I was deeply eager to share its splendors with you. Unfortunately, events beyond my control have led to a brief delay as I liaise with several corporate parties as to precisely where and in what form the book should be released."

SEE ALSO: I went to the 'Severance' pop-up in Grand Central. It was wild.

Sounds like this is Lumon in crisis management mode following the events of the Season 1 finale.

Ricken goes on to say that he negotiated for the release of the first eight chapters. (According to Season 1, there are at least 29 chapters.) That means we miss out on the context for such banger lines from Season 1 like "bullies are just bull and lies" or "it was not me who was wrong, but literature itself." Here's hoping we'll get the last chapters by the end of Season 2 — or perhaps tied to a future season?

Ricken has a truly wild backstory. Patricia Arquette, Michael Chernus, and Jen Tullock in "Severance." Credit: AppleTV+

The You You Are is required reading for anyone who has ever wondered, "why is Ricken so insufferable?" (I know I have.)

The answer began at birth, the circumstances of which make for such a bizarre passage I simply have to include it in its entirety:

Readers of my previous books know that both my conception and birth took place in a small theatre behind a defunct perfumery in Western Oregon, as part of a nine-month performance art piece originated by my parents titled "Smells Like Afterbirth, F**ker." It was noteworthy in that I was the first child sired exclusively for theatrical purposes, and critics at the time hailed it as "a baroque deconstruction of the increasingly perverse human urge to procreate."

SEE ALSO: The cast of 'Severance' on getting lost in the ever-expanding hallways of Lumon

Ricken writes that his parents (whose performance group is called HumpDumpster) held a Boston bar hostage at gunpoint as one of their next pieces, resulting in a prison sentence and in Ricken spending much of his youth alone. The information, equal parts tragic and hilarious, proves enlightening. No wonder Ricken seeks connection with others in pretentious artsy circles.

The You You Are is full of other Ricken stories, including way too much information about his sex life, as well as some tidbits about Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma's (Dichen Lachman) lives before Gemma's death and entrapment in Lumon.

Mark and Gemma show up in The You You Are — kind of. Michael Chernus and Adam Scott in "Severance." Credit: AppleTV+

Ricken explores his relationship with Mark and Gemma throughout The You You Are. He refers to them under the pseudonyms of Flip and Nan, because they wanted their real names left out of his book. (Can you blame them?)

In one anecdote, Ricken writes about him, Devon, Mark, and Gemma going on a hike — a story he brings up to Innie Mark in the Season 1 finale, asking him, "you remember the funny bees?"

The "funny bees," we learn in The You You Are, came from a wild beehive that Ricken found both hilarious and a commentary on human society. But perhaps the most intriguing detail from the hiking story is what we hear about Gemma from Ricken. From the sound of it, they had far more of a bond than he currently has with Mark. He says the two of them read Doctor Zhivago during a lunch break on the hike, and that she entertained his bee theory while Devon and Mark mocked it.

These instances could simply be Ricken projecting kindness onto Gemma, something we see in a later story about her texting him that she is enjoying a "self-produced Tuvan throat singing album" he gave her for her birthday. (What a gift!) After Gemma's death, a grieving Mark tells Ricken that he and Gemma laughed at it. But, Ricken ponders, was the laughter playful or cruel? Either way, it colors what he thought of his interactions with Gemma in life, making for a surprisingly sad scene in a book that is otherwise full of Ricken's nonsense.

The fact that Mark plays such a large role in The You You Are adds a new layer to his Innie finding so much meaning in it. There's no way he could have known the "Flip" passages were about his Outie, but it's surreal to think of him learning about memories only one part of him knows. Plus, it adds more weight to Ricken's sadness at Outie Mark not having read the book. The You You Are isn't just an exercise in Ricken's ego — it's also partly an exploration of his grief about Gemma, and perhaps his own strange way of extending an olive branch to Mark.

The You You Are has a Lexington Letter Easter egg. Jen Tullock and Michael Chernus in "Severance." Credit: AppleTV+

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it passage, The You You Are mentions "the Dorner truck explosion" as the reason Devon and Ricken finally moved away from the city. The Dorner truck explosion plays a key role in The Lexington Letter, with Dorner referring to Lumon competitor Dorner Therapeutics.

SEE ALSO: 'Severance' Season 2: What is Cold Harbor?

The Lexington Letter follows former severed Lumon employee Peggy Kincaid, who finds a way past to bypass Lumon's code detectors and communicate with her Innie. From their written conversations, Peggy learns that she completed a file just two minutes before a Dorner truck blew up in New York City. Was this just a coincidence, or had the Lumon file triggered the explosion?

The You You Are doesn't offer any further information on the subject, but its brief mention here highlights the impact the Dorner truck explosion had on the wider world of Severance. Perhaps it's only a matter of time before it's announced on the show itself.

The You You Are is free and available for download on Apple Books. Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a new episode every Friday.