December 29, 2025
One does not simply tap Deselect
Show HN: A 45x45 Connections Puzzle To Commemorate 2025=45*45
Hacker News loves the giant brain teaser—long-game vibes, Deselect drama, and Boromir memes
TLDR: A massive 45×45 matching puzzle celebrates 2025 being a perfect square. Players love the marathon challenge but spar over mobile quirks—hidden headers, vanishing Deselect, and inconsistent selection—while memes demand Boromir’s “One does not simply” pairing and a commenter flexes 1936/2116 trivia.
To ring in 2025 with a math flex, a creator dropped a mega “Connections”-style puzzle—45 groups of 45—to Hacker News, and the crowd went... blissfully cross‑eyed. The vibe? Long-puzzle lovers are feasting. One early player bragged, “I clicked straight through without reading your directions” and loved the “puzzle of the puzzle.” Mobile players chimed in with surprise kudos (“Works decently well on mobile!”), then immediately launched into UI beefs: zooming hides the header, “Deselect” vanishes, and the combined-item selection behavior is inconsistent, forcing constant un-clicking. The designer’s minimalism sparked a mini culture war: leave it raw and discoverable, or pin controls and corral finished sets?
Meanwhile, the meme squad arrived swinging. A righteous cry: “Boromir” must pair with “One does not simply.” Pop‑culture names from Marvel to Muppets turned the grid into a nostalgia minefield, and someone even dropped a trivia bomb: “last time the year was a square was 1936… next is 2116.” Between cheers for “long brain-burn” and grumbles about stickier headers and grouped categories (a side column, anyone?), the community’s verdict is clear: this XXL brain teaser is addictive, chaotic, and gloriously 2025. The only real mistake count? How many times you forget to hit “Deselect.”
Key Points
- •The puzzle commemorates 2025 by structuring a challenge around 45×45, instructing players to form 45 groups of 45.
- •Gameplay involves combining two items at a time to build categories toward completion.
- •The interface shows Score and Mistakes counters and includes a Deselect option for managing selections.
- •The item set spans diverse domains, including companies, programming languages, public figures, countries, and landmarks.
- •The article content is primarily the puzzle’s item list and minimal rules; no further instructions or commentary are included.