Starting afresh helps

I've had a lot of fun with Advent of Code so far this year, and I will definitely finish it this year (Deno stickers are a huge motivation!).

Yesterday's (Day 17) part 2 took me way too long to figure out. I ended up giving up after staring at it and thinking about it in between things over a couple of hours, and eventually thought I should just stop and start afresh today.

Stepping away from a problem, getting some rest, and coming back to it with a fresh perspective is something that I often forget to do. For the longest time I would feel guilty about taking breaks from problems — even though I was well-aware that it's the right thing to do and would encourage others to do so.

That's especially bad in the context of work when not balanced out with well-deserved breaks afterwards because:

• It stresses you out both physically and mentally.
• It stresses those around you out. It could be because they genuinely care about your wellbeing, they want to keep up with your pace as part of a team, and so on.
• It becomes a habit that others will take advantage of — be it consciously or unconsciously.
• It's something that others can weaponise against you with even if you did it "for the team" — particular when you make a mistake that caused setbacks in the process.

Keep calm and take breaks. ☀️