261–270 of 580 posts
Last year I got stuck on Day 12 for a full week, and thinking about how to solve it consumed my every waking moment. I think this year, I'm going to be kind to myself and not participate so I can really enjoy the winter break from work.
What's so hard about Day 12? It's just +/'{x:".",x;H:(-1+;1+i-)@'+|\m*i:!#m:x=\:"#." R:(x=x)({[h;d;x;y;z](z#0),+\(((-z)_~"#"=x)&z_d>z)*(*y),(-z+1)_y-0^y h}. H)[x]/y (*|R)-R@*|0,&1_*+m}.''1({("?"/:5#,x;,/5#,y)}.')\@[;1;.:]'" "\:'0:`:i/12.txt
Because we can assume that these problems necessarily cannot be in the training set of any current LLM (and are hard enough, i.e. they should be more than mere variations on existing problems), I'm wondering if they can be a good benchmark to get a better sense of how good they really are at problem solving?
Modern LLMs are very good at solving programming puzzles like that. As soon as it recognizes which algorithm needs to apply, it's just massaging the data to the right format.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The global leaderboard is so fast that any AI assistance would literally slow them down, here's one of the guys who tends to score highly solving today's puzzle. ( https://youtu.be/ym1ae-vBy6g ), and on the more complicated days that's even more pronounced because anyone who is even somewhat decent doesn't need to ask chatgpt how to write Dijkstra. Obviously if you're doing it recreationally you can cheat with AI but…
Python looks excruciatingly slow to me. If you want fast I believe you need to think and write in vector languages like kdb+/q. I am not a kdb+ expert by any means and my code can probably use more q primitives, but here was my solution in ~2 minutes: i1:("I I";" ")0: `:1.txt; sum {abs last deltas x }each flip asc each i1 / answer 1 sum {x * sum x = i1[1]}each i1[0] / answer 2
What does each flip asc do?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I re-read the intro and the fact it mentions leetcode and the like was enough for me to decide that it's an ultimately pointless endeavour for me. I have no interest at all in competitive programming or maths; I spend 40+ hours a week doing programming for work, I want games and challenges that pull me away from that so I continue to have a life outside of my job.
I find it useful for trying new languages. The first 10 days usually start very easily and progress quite gradually. The 2nd half definitely gets more brutal, but if you do have the self-control, you can stop whenever it stops being productive.
For instance I’m using it this year to dial in new neovim configs. Last year was to get comfortable with a split keyboard.
Am I alone in thinking that measuring time to get answer is the worst possible metric? I have not participated because of that (yet). If there is a community for those who use other rules to compare actual solutions instead of answers I would be interested to hear about it. I am coming from low level C++ gamedev side so I understand that most people here use different tools to solve different problems.
Generally you have the main community on reddit (memes, questions, daily thread for sharing solutions), then the language specific subreddits or hosted forums where you will see solutions discussed and shared, plus a couple of new users asking questions.
Also, within the daily main community thread you will see the niche sub community of people posting their code-golfing attempts.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's so hard about Day 12? It's just +/'{x:".",x;H:(-1+;1+i-)@'+|\m*i:!#m:x=\:"#." R:(x=x)({[h;d;x;y;z](z#0),+\(((-z)_~"#"=x)&z_d>z)*(*y),(-z+1)_y-0^y h}. H)[x]/y (*|R)-R@*|0,&1_*+m}.''1({("?"/:5#,x;,/5#,y)}.')\@[;1;.:]'" "\:'0:`:i/12.txt
Is this Q? or k?
Work on a side project this December instead of doing this. Solving advent of code just keeps you in your comfort zone. Creates a false sense of accomplishment. Redirect all the positive energy to something that will make you proud when you are old or help with an earlier retirement. This won't.
Last year I got stuck on Day 12 for a full week, and thinking about how to solve it consumed my every waking moment. I think this year, I'm going to be kind to myself and not participate so I can really enjoy the winter break from work.
I think as nerds we need to be quite careful not to get too drawn into this kind of thing. Sometimes it's like a superpower, but other times it just pointlessly consumes your life. Kinda makes me think of gambling addiction: "when the fun stops, you stop".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's so hard about Day 12? It's just +/'{x:".",x;H:(-1+;1+i-)@'+|\m*i:!#m:x=\:"#." R:(x=x)({[h;d;x;y;z](z#0),+\(((-z)_~"#"=x)&z_d>z)*(*y),(-z+1)_y-0^y h}. H)[x]/y (*|R)-R@*|0,&1_*+m}.''1({("?"/:5#,x;,/5#,y)}.')\@[;1;.:]'" "\:'0:`:i/12.txt
Is this Q? or k?
https://ngn.codeberg.page/k/#eJxVjsFugzAMhu95iiyWik1CIGPtIVG...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It ate my life for a few years in a row, I even managed to finish on Christmas eve twice. Now I don't even look, it turns from fun to stress rather quickly.
I re-read the intro and the fact it mentions leetcode and the like was enough for me to decide that it's an ultimately pointless endeavour for me. I have no interest at all in competitive programming or maths; I spend 40+ hours a week doing programming for work, I want games and challenges that pull me away from that so I continue to have a life outside of my job.
Some time ago I started creating mods for the game stardew valley. It still involves some programming but mainly drawing, creating animations and composing music! It's an absolute blast and so relaxing (like the game itself).
I think by now I could even start working on my own game but I don't yet have a desire to.