I do Advent of Code every year.
For the last seven years, including this one, I have managed to get all the stars. I do not say that to brag. I say it because it explains why I keep coming back.
It is one of the few tech traditions I never get bored of, even after doing it for a long time. I like the time pressure. I like the community vibe. I like that every December I can pick one language and go all in.
This year, I picked Gleam.
A much shorter year#
Advent of Code is usually 25 days. This year Eric decided to do 12 days instead.
So instead of 50 parts, it was 24.
That sounds like a relaxed year. It was not, but not in a bad way.
The easier days were harder than the easy days in past years, but they were also really engaging and fun to work through. The hard days were hard, especially the last three, but they were still the good kind of hard. They were problems I actually wanted to wrestle with.
It also changes the pacing in a funny way. In a normal year, by day 10 you have a pretty comfy toolbox. This year it felt like the puzzles were already demanding that toolbox while I was still building it.
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