First week of 2025

2025 is off to a pretty good start!

I spent 3 days alone in Phu Quoc to recharge, didn’t do anything except swimming and reading Thistlefoot while drinking coconuts. I used to go regularly when I was single, but now it’s going to be my last trip for a while. Got lucky with the weather as well!

Back home, I’ve made some progress on my crossword solver app. I opened a WebSocket to stream the intermediary results (“dead ends”) as the backtracking algorithm progresses; I think it looks cool. In the frontend, I’ve added a history so you can Ctrl-Z, and other minor convenience changes (right-click to toggle between black and white cells, etc). I should define the scope, though; I don’t plan to make it a full-blown “crossword editor.” I think I will just add the ability to export a grid and be done with it.

I hope to share it on Hacker News sometime this year. Reactions can be pretty harsh sometimes, but let’s see how this one goes.

Speaking of Hacker News, there was a funny blog post shared recently, “I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life”. The 1500+ reactions it generated were as expected (a mix of contempt and jealousy). Got some good links, though, especially this blog about “early retirement”. I’m generally happy, and I’ve got kids to take care of, so I feel like I’m in a good position to enjoy myself during early retirement—I just need to find the money!