chrisvest-4clojure-solution53.clj

;; chrisvest's solution to http://4clojure.com/problem/53

(fn [xs] (or (->>
  (map vector xs (range))
  (partition-by #(apply - %))
  (map #(map first %))
  (filter #(> (count %) 1))
  (sort-by (comp - count))
  first) []))

Good knowledge if the available functions for the seq abstraction gives you a vocabulary for your thoughts, if that makes sense, so you can think at a higher level and therefore more effectively. Then I guess I just think about the data structure that comes into the function and the data structure I want out of it, and what path that might take. Then once I got something that works, I just golf it for the fun of it until something like this comes out.

This is probably not a very helpful description of how to solve problems in general :P
But basically, I ask myself that, if the problem is hard, then how can I get it into a data structure where the problem is easy?

No, that last phrase is particularly useful advice thanks. I tried this problem and ended up with a huge ugly nested if function .. So finding this concise answer was quite an eye opener.