While I agree that just dumping the puzzle instructions into an llm and getting the right answer at least doesn’t align with the spirit of Advent of Code (though it does show how crazy good LLMs are getting), I’m using this as an opportunity to try out the new Windsurf AI IDE and am driving the AI code editing in it to help me write the code to solve each puzzle (I’m using Ruby).
My goal is to develop the muscle memory for the tool so I can write code quickly. I’m still generally thinking through the puzzles, but being able to just write out plain English logic, get code generated, ask for it to be well documented, quickly refactor things to be generally reusable, etc, is just fantastic and how all software development should be done in this day and age frankly. Such an accelerator to problem solving.
My goal is to develop the muscle memory for the tool so I can write code quickly. I’m still generally thinking through the puzzles, but being able to just write out plain English logic, get code generated, ask for it to be well documented, quickly refactor things to be generally reusable, etc, is just fantastic and how all software development should be done in this day and age frankly. Such an accelerator to problem solving.