As I saw the problem today, I was reminded of how useful was visualization on day 20.

So I immediately tried to learn about the dot language (that was fast), and whipped up some awk to convert the input. The three connection edges were quickly apparent, so I removed them manually, made the other edges bi-directional and counted the nodes on each part of the graph.

I know there is a simple graph-theory solution with flows, but that will be enough for me for this year's AoC !

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It's the second year in a row that I'm able to complete AoC. And I'll be honest: this was though. The break-neck pace of doing one full solve per day requires that one either has a lot of free time, or has previously spent a lot of free time getting better in order to solve the puzzles faster. I do it because it's fun, and it still was; but I'm aware that it's walking over the not-fun line as well.

I was able to do it, but it was not cost-free. I think I might go for a lighter pace (or skip) next year.

On a positive note, I still learned a lot this year, and that's one of my personal goals 🙂

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