Making it better: 01

First I found that finalizing anything over 5 plants would freeze my Mac for over 10 seconds. I looked over the vibe code and realized it was using permutations and generating every single outcome and running each outcome through the scoring system.

I used AI to switch from a brute force engine to a much more optimized engine. It implemented memoization (cache) which eliminated duplicates. It also implemented hill climbing sorting and random restarts, which helped find the best outcome much faster. (86% decrease)

Now that I’m starting to understand Stardance and Hack Club I’m pivoting from heavy vibe-coding to having Claude walk me through the code instead (in tandem with the tutorials). I’ll pitch the ideas, fixes, next steps, and ask Claude when I’m stuck on the technical aspects.