diff --git a/2021/8/main2.py b/2021/8/main2.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbec45d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2021/8/main2.py
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# IDEAS(dev):
+#  - You might not have to determine all the positions if the numbers to decode don't use them
+#     e.g. while(number to decode NOT IN numbers decodable) { do everything }
+#  -
+
+# NOTES(dev):
+#  - It looks like the codes are NOT always printed in the same order.  For example, if one shows up
+#     as 'cg', it might also later show up as 'gc' in the same line.
+#   0:      1:      2:      3:      4:
+
+#  aaaa    ....    aaaa    aaaa    ....
+# b    c  .    c  .    c  .    c  b    c
+# b    c  .    c  .    c  .    c  b    c
+#  ....    ....    dddd    dddd    dddd
+# e    f  .    f  e    .  .    f  .    f
+# e    f  .    f  e    .  .    f  .    f
+#  gggg    ....    gggg    gggg    ....
+
+#   5:      6:      7:      8:      9:
+#  aaaa    aaaa    aaaa    aaaa    aaaa
+# b    .  b    .  .    c  b    c  b    c
+# b    .  b    .  .    c  b    c  b    c
+#  dddd    dddd    ....    dddd    dddd
+# .    f  e    f  .    f  e    f  .    f
+# .    f  e    f  .    f  e    f  .    f
+#  gggg    gggg    ....    gggg    gggg
+
+# initialize shared data:
+possibilities = {}
+all_possibilities = [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' ]
+
+# functions:
+def ResetData():
+    possibilities.clear()
+    for letter in all_possibilities:
+        possibilities[letter] = list(all_possibilities)
+
+def ParsePossibilities(text):
+    text_len = len(text)
+    if(text_len == 2):
+        good_letters = [ text[0], text[1] ]
+        print(good_letters)
+
+        # first, get rid of the good letters from all the other positions
+        for letter in ['a', 'b', 'd', 'e', 'g']: # all the positions not used by #1
+            for to_remove in good_letters:
+                possibilities[letter].remove(to_remove)
+
+        # second, get rid of the other letters from the positions used by #1
+        for letter in ['c', 'f']:
+            to_remove_list = []
+            for l in possibilities[letter]:
+                if(not (l in good_letters)):
+                    to_remove_list.append(l)
+            for to_remove in to_remove_list:
+                possibilities[letter].remove(to_remove)
+
+total = 0
+with open('example_data', 'r') as fp:
+    # NOTE(dev): We assume all lines are the same length
+    for line in fp:
+        ResetData()
+        split_line = line.split(' | ')
+        data = split_line[0].split()
+        print(data)
+        codes = split_line[1]
+        for val in codes.split():
+            if(len(val) in [2, 3, 4, 7]):
+                total += 1
+
+        for text in data:
+            ParsePossibilities(text.strip())
+
+        asdf = possibilities.items()
+        asdf = list(asdf)
+        asdf.sort()
+        print(asdf)
+
+# part 1 answer:
+print(total)
+
+
+
+# # DEBUG(dev):
+# print(possibilities)