TL;DR: So far so good… follow along on Github!
I’m probably getting ahead of myself by writing this but it seems like I might actually be sticking with Advent of Code this year. I’ve set myself up for success and maybe this will hold me accountable…
On Learning Stuff Link to heading
I’ve never completed a full Advent of Code.
Around October of this year I decided that was probably because I was trying to do too much at once. I’ve always tried to do it in a new language and finish it as fast as possible all at the same time. So combining the frustration of learning a new language with the stress of speed with the fact that problem solving is itself a challenge… well, my short attention span always just gave up relatively quickly.
SO this year I decided to learn one “new skill” at a time, and that skill is “finishing Advent of Code”
- I’m using Ruby!
- I’m not pushing speed but like, if I’m awake when the problem is published, that’s fine.
I think this is a good baseline
On healthy competition Link to heading
My coworkers made a private leaderboard and 32 of us have joined. Healthy competition is neat right? It’s complicated and I’m not sure how I feel about it but either way, I am very driven to feel like I’m good at things. So seeing myself on a leaderboard and actually hanging in there as opposed to getting no points always is actually pretty motivating.
My coworkers are really awesome programmers so it makes me feel good that I’m right up there. That’s neat! I’m going to set a stretch goal to “place well” but with the understanding that life happens and also the metric is kind of weird. Of course I could stay up and finish the problems as fast as possible so maybe this goal is silly. We’ll see. It’s optional.
On accountability Link to heading
Having a coworker leaderboard is also really motivating in that other people can clearly see if I’ve given up! I don’t want to let them down (not that they’d really care) so that makes me want to try hard as well.
I think this blog post is also part of it. The more evidence that exists that says I’ve made an attempt, I think the more likely I’ll want to leave that evidence in a great state. In other words, finished.
My goals! Link to heading
- Finish Advent of Code 2022 using Ruby