Recently, I have been posting a lot of comments on others' posts regarding feeling that aptitude and IQ are necessary for reaching substantial heights in CP. I disagree, and there are probably more than enough examples in support of my position on codeforces and other CP platforms. Nonetheless, since I am trying to improve at CP myself, I intend to post every day from now on to provide an update on my progress in order to keep a literal complete record of my progress starting from specialist. I can guarantee you that I do not have any sort of great natural aptitude, so this should be interesting to see over time. I have been doing CP for just under a year at this point in time, so this daily record is simply a digital tracking of the progress I intend to make anyways. It is intended to encourage those that are discouraged by their own struggles -- to see that work actually does matter. If you do enough, you can reach significant heights still -- it just may take a bit longer than other people.
This will also provide me a bit of accountability for making some movement every single day, which I have been doing for almost 2 months at the moment anyways.
You are not from Canada
According to you, What matters for success in CP?
My thinking is — IQ Does matter alot for initial growth / start.
Let me make this clear: I am not saying that IQ does not matter. What I am claiming is that you can still reach more or less the calibre of a grandmaster within a reasonable amount of time without having a very high IQ or exceptional aptitude. IQ definitely does help, no question about it -- as I said in the post itself, it just takes the average person longer and more deliberate practice to attain such heights. With the same kind of work, of course a higher IQ person will still in the end be of higher skill, but what is to be demonstrated here is performance on an objective basis, not a relative basis -- i.e. reaching grandmaster (for example), not "catching up" with the level of tourist or someone of the sort.
Regarding exactly what is necessary for success in CP, it is a lot of deliberate practice -- not just practice. That is, specifically targeting your weaknesses beyond your frustration threshold -- literally sitting there in great mental discomfort, not wanting to try a problem anymore but still trying to solve it. That is where the genuine growth happens. I am not just theorizing this -- this is precisely how I've gone from Newbie level to my current level.
I also agree. I'll be following your progress closely :)
Very much appreciated.