derAdler's blog

feeling demotivated and loss of confidence!!
By derAdler, history, 8 years ago, In English

Hello friends, i know that there are a lot of similar blogs out there but i m writing this because of a genuine concern, i have been coding for sometime now but still i m unable to think beyond a certain level, however hard i try to, i don't know what to do, during holidays,i used to code for fun but since the holidays ended i do not feel like coding anymore, because so much time is wasted in daily chores and when i see people solving good questions i feel even more demotivated, i dont know what to do and i think i have forgotten whatever i learnt during holidays, i really want to code and increase my level and my lost confidence(which i gained during holidays) so guys plz help, for eg i m sure that i could have thought educational round 14 D question if i were the same person as during the holidays but i couldn't today, i lost even more confidence(i was trying to think topological sort or dsu or something but i was simply sorting), i just want to know a method to gain my lost confidence, plz help guys.. also i get demotivated when i see others writing some complex level code(compared to my simple but correct code), which i cannot understand....

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by derAdler (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

bro i have been doing seriously from last year.i am trying hard.All of my friend are entering jobs,But still i am trying without thinking of any profit.Even i can not attend any national national contest due to my lacking.Do not be so hopeless.You do not know about your future.Work hard and keep faith in god and yourself.

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8 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

I know that feel, bro. Just dont care about this, and keep training(its helped me a lot).

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    That's some badass graph bro. ;)

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

      I am starting from bottom of the ocean :D. But sometimes, i feel that i am still there :(

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

C'mon. I also lost my motivation many times. That lack of motivation doesn't lasts more than a week, don't be so worried about it (if it last longer, maybe you should contact a specialist). Maybe you are depressed by something (it happens), but just forget about it, doesn't worth the pain. Just look at my graph. I survived the grey zone! If you want to notice some improvement, you should learn from tutorials, books, videos, coach, etc and solve a lot of problems.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

I have a somewhat similar problem. I started doing comptetitive programming seriously relatively late and it's hard to see people of younger age beating you in every way. I feel frustration every time I can't solve a problem or can't understand the editorial. Here's how I cope with that. I choose a hard problem for me, in CF usually it is D or E, rarely C of Div2, and try to solve it as hard as I can spending up to 3 days. If I figure out the related topic (sometimes I even try not to look at the problem tags) I search for resources to learn more about that. Solving hard problems by pushing yourself to the limits and realizing that you are now a little bit better than 2-3 days ago brings a lot of satisfaction and confidence. After finishing with the problem I try to thoroughly analyze what did I learn, what was my mistake, how should I have approached it, can I reuse my code for similar problems, etc. You shouldn't repeat the same mistakes again. If I can't come up with a solution within that time span I look at the editors (but it is the last resort) and try to understand, learn and solve. If it's still not clear enough for me I give up and move to another hard problem. I think this method is very suitable. However it may take a longer period of time to master than some other techniques which I don't know. Good luck bro.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    But giving up on that problem, isn't this something bad?

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8 years ago, # |
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Same here. I have been spending a huge amount of time on several competitive programming sites but i always end up solving a certain kind of problems and being defeated by others.

However, I am not sure whether it is correct solution or not, But still there is something which you don't know (neither i) like- some kind of solving strategy for a certain problem, some algorithm designing strategy and programming tricks.

I think, you should take some training particularly in competitive programming. DigitalArtistKz has told a very nice way to train yourself. At least by that way you'll make sure that you will not get defeated by same kind of problem again and again.

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8 years ago, # |
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There is something that I have learnt over the years and whenever I share that fact with someone . Nobody believes me!

( I am working on improving my english , please excuse any mistakes. )

Please read my whole words and think about them.

Suppose you are about 7..10 , you are going to school and you are learning some basic maths like multiply ,fraction , ... . Now can you answer a question about Integral or Derivation ?! Absolutely not! If someone teachs you how to solve 100 problems about them, at 101'th question there is just 2 situations :

  • you will solve it! that's because you saw something like that before and this is like a puzzle for you, you will just solve a patterned puzzle and you don't understand what are you doing!!

  • you can't solve it! because you didn't see that puzzle before !!!

Actually you have to pass so many basic stuffs , reading books about them , solve many problems and be able to understand them , Step By Step ...

Competitive programming is exactly like that! I checked your solved problems in codeforces :

[A,B,C,D,E]

ILoveBfsDfs : [132, 89, 66, 12, 3]

derAdler : [26, 51, 34, 9, 0]

GastonFontenla : [170, 60, 21, 3, 0]

( if you want to know : My [383, 343, 256, 89, 17] )

I don't know how many problems you have solved in other websites but this numbers are very LOW! you have to solve at least about 250 problems from some level and then go to the next level. If you beyond your skills , you will be demotivated , because you can't see your progress.

I learnt this things just a few months ago and I believed my skills limit and just tried to improve them step by step and I got my results. I had solved about 500 problems before that in 2 and half years but after that and increasing my effort and reading time( I mean books , blogs , ... just in my level and a bit more ) , Now I have solved 500 more problems in about half a year and I saw very good results!

These are just some tips and my experiments , you can choose you own way , Just try More and Smart ...

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks a lot for the awesome advice !

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    How did you get those numbers [A,B,C,D,E] ?

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      API

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        Could you give a more detailed explanation on how to get [A, B, C, D, E] using API?

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          8 years ago, # ^ |
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          Sorry , my friend wrote a code for it, not me.

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        Can you count the number of problems [A,B,C,D,E] that I solved?

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          8 years ago, # ^ |
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          I am not the owner of the code. I will ask my friend to makes it available , if he accepts.

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          8 years ago, # ^ |
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          [ 26, 34, 45, 11, 1 ]

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      you can use a2oj.com by making an account using your codeforces handle....then click on categories and thus for each div2 categorie you can see the number of your solved problems of that level ... Sorry for my bad english

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks man this is just the reply i was waiting for....i will give my best now

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8 years ago, # |
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no fucking div1 guy commented ! Expected!

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thats because such kinds of questions have been asked before on codeforces and they already gave their opinions there

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

    Because this is the next trend after "How to become red from green"

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