Learn as you go - introducing TIL
Ever since wordle, I've been into the genre of daily puzzles. They're usually tiny both in terms of the challenge presented and the time commitment required to solve them, which makes for a perfect addition to my day.
Currently I solve the following, usually around lunch:
- Minute Cryptic - my current favourite, normally a pleasure to solve but every now and again you're faced with a clue so abstract, finally solving it (or not) is a moment that is somewhere between agony, joy, and sheer dumbfoundedness.
- NYT Games - Wordle, Strands, Mini Crossword and Connections (this one is the quickest way to give yourself schizophrenia), with the occasional Pips.
- LinkedIn Games - I absolutely adore these, and they're the only reason I go through the slop that LinkedIn can be at times. My current streak stands at 329! (for 3 out of 6 games)
There's a few notable mentions that were fun for a while but ultimately not something I've added to the daily ritual. Of these, I recently came across colorguesser - a game that presents you with a really strange colour name (Dry Riverbed) and has you pick the shade from a Colour Picker tool. Within the FAQ section for this site, I found the creator's blog, and something I haven't really seen in any other blog site so far, there's a TIL section on the homepage which states the following -
I try to write about what I've learned every day. Each article is generally very short and mainly concerns techniques I've found useful or interesting.
Which I think is quite the neat way to differentiate those smaller ideas/learnings that never make it into a full fledged post. So I've implemented a similar section for my own blog, and in the process of doing so gained my very first TIL post content as well! I'm also aware the timing of this correlates heavily to the idea of this being a new year's resolution but I'd like to believe that remains a coincidence at best.
And while we're on the topic of new year's, Happy New Year!