Every December at b.ignited, something starts to buzz in the background. People begin counting down to midnight in ways that would worry anyone outside the tech world. Coffee machines work overtime. Slack goes strangely quiet around puzzle release time. Advent of Code is back.

And every year, we’re reminded that it’s never about the code. Not really. It’s about the journey you take on the way to the answer. As Brandon Sanderson wrote in The Stormlight Archive: “Journey before destination.” Honestly, it feels like he wrote it specifically for Advent of Code participants who just discovered their logic error after two hours of staring at the same line.

What makes this so special for us isn’t the solutions—it’s the shared experience. The frustration when your beautifully crafted approach collapses under a test case. The collective “oh no…” when someone admits they misread the prompt and built an entire solution to the wrong problem. The sudden spark of joy when a colleague says one sentence that makes everything click. It's the small celebrations, the sighs of relief, the accidental overengineering, and the occasional victory lap around the office.

The fun part is that everyone approaches the same problem differently. Some sprint toward a quick and dirty solution. Others architect a small universe because “you never know, Day 7 might reuse this.” Some write code so minimal it feels like a magic trick. Others proudly present a solution that could power a weather satellite. It doesn’t matter. What matters is seeing each other think.

And that’s exactly why we do this every year. Advent of Code lets people grow without making it feel like work. You don’t sign up to become a better programmer, but somehow you do—because debugging becomes play, experimenting becomes natural, and discussing your mistakes becomes part of the fun instead of something to hide.

It strengthens how we collaborate. It sharpens how we solve problems. And it reminds us that learning is more enjoyable when you’re surrounded by colleagues who laugh with you, not at you, when your code decides to operate exclusively on emotional support.

So next December, we’ll be right back at it. Not for the leaderboard. Not for perfect solutions. But for the conversations, the breakthroughs, the “how did you solve it?”, and the feeling of being on a small adventure together.

Because Advent of Code has always been, and will always be, about the journey.