Couldn't agree with this more. It took me a year of chipping away at it to come up with a solution. Finally finished it the first time while my flight was touching down in thailand.

I've heard mine is not the normal algorithm people are taught. The one I use is totally suboptimal - but that's a wonderful thing. There's forever more to discover. It's actually a brilliant problem for the types of people that haunt HN. I implore those of you who have never tried to give it a shot. And remember, if you look online, you're only cheating yourself.