In case you're wondering why it matters, puzzles are expected to get harder later in the week. So a puzzle run early in the week is easier than one that runs later. That's why he says If I’d known that the puzzle would appear on a Friday, I would have stayed up much later into the night to try to make a lower word count grid. and (if you follow the link to Quora) The challenge was compounded by the need for clues of Friday level difficulty, which is always tough. I really felt pressure to produce good clues in order to compensate for the lack of a low word count grid that solvers would be expecting.