I loved to watch the “Curiosity Show” when I was a kid (the German version, of course – to this day, nothing in German television is in English, it’s all dubbed horribly). And it’s on YouTube now! 🥳 https://www.youtube.com/@CuriosityShow/videos

If you don’t like Advent of Code because it’s just more programming on top of your day job, I’d like to suggest doing the following days in isolation:

• https://adventofcode.com/2021/day/24
  
• https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/24
  

And maybe even:

• https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/25
  
• https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/14
  

The first two can be solved by creativity and exploration, they’re not just “use algorithm $foo” like many other puzzles. They require hardly any programming at all.

The other two do need a bit of programming, but 2024/14 was pretty interesting and unconventional.