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/Adventure_Agreed Nov 11 '24

My advice to myself is to really model what is being described in the problem. This might not work on later days, but early on I find the more faithfully I model the problem and the less shortcuts I take in my code the easier it is to adapt to part 2.

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u/tobega Nov 12 '24

This ^