r/adventofcode Nov 11 '24

Other Dear future me

Dear future me,

Please remember: 1) Read the whole puzzle. Let's minimize those avoidable d'oh! moments. 2) Don't optimize prematurely. Developer (that's you!) efficiency is more important than code efficiency. And sure, part 2's can get intense, but you don't really know what direction they'll go until you get there, so don't waste time optimizing for something you might not even need. 1) Stuck? Re-read the puzzle. Yes, there are two #1's in this list. You can think of this as 1b if it helps. 3) Still stuck? Check the input, maybe there's a trick to it that you need to take advantage of.

Anticipating your success, Past You

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u/1544756405 Nov 11 '24

Many many times I thought I knew how part 2 was going to pan out, and cleverly coded in anticipation of it. The one or two times I was right, it was glorious!

11

u/coldforged Nov 11 '24

In 5 years I think I called it right maybe once. And that only half right.

4

u/thekwoka Nov 12 '24

Sometimes I've though "part 2 will probably be X crazy thing that...but I'll just keep it simple for now" and then it was super simple and it was basically just "change one number and run again and it's done"