Errichto's blog

By Errichto, 5 years ago, In English

On Tuesday, April 14, I will solve random problems live on Youtube, until I hit 100k subs. Suggestions in the chat are welcome.

https://youtu.be/rEGDNd-9PAU (there's countdown to start)

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

Still 14 hours to go. Jst wondering if you hit 100k before the expected start time then??

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5 years ago, # |
Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +595 Vote: I do not like it

Protip: never subscribe or even unsubscribe, so he'll have to do it forever.

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5 years ago, # |
Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +1031 Vote: I do not like it

U̶n̶p̶o̶p̶u̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶o̶p̶i̶n̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶-̶
Sorry but just now I unsubscribed from "Errichto" channel. This isn't the content I subscribed for. All I see is only interviews, something targeted at beginner, and something already available. They are the majority and caused a spike in your no. of subscribers.

You started off with POI streams (something which was not available), parallel Binary Search, EV Lecture, Exchange arguments, etc. These are simply non-existent these days. Corona lockdown. I expected more. Honestly, you did these more when there was no lockdown.

Right now you just do leetcode and interviews which anyone with decent enough rating can do. Why are you wasting time on it? A Hindi proverb which in English literally translates to "Sew with a sword".

Your argument in support of this will be that you just want to popularise CP. What about after starting CP? Right now what you are doing is irrelevant to CPers here. Leetcode was very popular before you started your channel. You just cashed that into subscribers and now you're just making it more popular. I don't see a single reason why someone would like to do CP (I hope you know what it means) after watching your videos. A lot of people just do it for cracking an interview at FANG. By "Google Coding Interview Question — Longest String Chain" you are just increasing population of that group and your subscribers.

With that said All the Best for your channels but please stop posting blogs here if it does not cater to the need of audiences here. Leetcode has a discussion forum (https://leetcode.com/discuss/) — post it there.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +365 Vote: I do not like it

    When I was watching his early lectures like the ones you mentioned I could not have imagined that the channel would transform into nothing but daily low effort click-bait videos of an IGM flexing how he can solve div3 difficulty problems in x seconds.

    But hey I guess the man has to make a living somehow.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +200 Vote: I do not like it

      It's like that with math channels too. 3B1B is pretty much the exception. A lot more people are going to click on videos like "What is sqrt of imaginary number???" than "Fundamentals of analysis". Just reality.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

      From Pewdiepie to T-Series.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +194 Vote: I do not like it

        Wait till I learn how to make music videos.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
          Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

          I hope you'll start(or do occasionally) some non trivial stuff again, so waiting till then.

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

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -92 Vote: I do not like it

    sorry.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

    Waiting for reply of Errichto on this.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +56 Vote: I do not like it

    Your point is absolutely correct. I remember there were few boring programming streams in which he used to solve many questions from codeforces and atcoder etc which actually helps a lot learning very small tricks and thinking behind h solution but they seem to have just vanished.

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

    I also agree with your points but I think you are being too harsh with words. Content now a days is focusing more on absolute beginners, which can be easily learnt anywhere. I know its his channel but I think we have duty to provide constructive criticism. I mostly agree with aryanc403.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +118 Vote: I do not like it

    I agree that what he's doing is not helpful to oranges or above, but I feel like lots of div2 users are finding it helpful, and I presume that they're the exact target audience for his youtube channel currently. It's his choice and neither of us have any right to judge that. I feel like what you're asking is "I don't find this blog helpful so please stop it" and it looks very wrong at least in my perspective. If you don't find it helpful, just unsubscribe from his channel and ignore the blogs.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +348 Vote: I do not like it

    I don't think it's an unpopular opinion and tbh I would unsubscribe too if I were you or other yellow/red coder. I indeed switched from CP to interviews and thus my target audience changed a lot. The main reason is simple: Youtube and coding interview teaching are becoming my job. It's a simplification but let's say: I make Leetcode videos instead of working for Google. I will still make some valuable difficult content though, just not that often. When I do, I will post on Codeforces so you will see it anyway.

    ===== more thoughts below =====

    I still think that my best videos are EV and Exchanged Arguments (in combination with my blogs on that) and I will sometimes cover such topics, just like I will create a Codeforces round when I have time. Just note that I'm good at EV and it was easy for me to write/teach about it, and the pool of such topics is finite. I have in plans "when to use fft/convolution?" and I guess I should do something on computational geometry (but what exactly? random problems?), some two more topics and then I'm out of ideas. What I can do for longer time is e.g. POI streams and I will make them too, just didn't have time for that recently. Reminder: such videos/streams are my hobby, not a job.

    Why are you wasting time on it?

    This is a single part of your comment that I don't like. I hope and think that I helped the CP community more than an average user, and I'm not obligated to continue doing so forever. Let's agree that I can play video games or make easy youtube videos if I want. My content helps a lot of people but is obviously less unique than EV etc. I don't think this is worse than getting a normal software engineering job.

    With that said All the Best for your channels but please stop posting blogs here if it does not cater to the need of audiences here

    I try not to spam and only post relevant things. I'm looking now at my recent blogs and I think that people here should be interested. Last two months: coding until 100k, introduction to cp, hash code warm-up, atcoder&leetcode&cf, bitwise operations.

    [from mblazev's comment] daily low effort click-bait videos of an IGM flexing how he can solve div3 difficulty problems in x seconds

    Leetcode has a 30-day contest with a new problem every day. I do it to grow my channel and create a nice playlist of leetcode problems, and I make thumbnails with that in mind (yes, flexing helps and I don't see how it's bad). My only clickbait so far is "5 tips to become a red coder", which was obviously an April Fools joke where I say "number 1: practice" and just talk about that for the whole video.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +71 Vote: I do not like it

      Youtube and coding interview teaching are becoming my job.

      This is an understandable reason. However, my question is: why? Is there no viable model for making money in CP or is there just too much money in interview prep?

      Have you explored alternative funding models like Patreon for more advanced content? Many channels which try to focus on quality content find it to be a more practical funding option. I'd gladly donate between 5-20$ per video (depending on how fast they come out...) on par with the EV/exchange argument videos.

      Finally, I just wanted to remark on why I (and probably many others feel disappointed. When you first made a YouTube channel, it was a breath of fresh air. There were no other as strong coders making high quality content, and I don't think it would be much of a stretch to say that those first couple lectures were the most helpful CP resource I've seen. Most people watching (including me) thought this was the dawn of a new era of CP content. Unfortunately, after those lectures you just stopped. Occasionally you we would make some explanations/ tutorials, but it was clear where your channel was shifting.

      Obviously you don't owe the CP community anything, and the lectures you made are more contribution than 99.9% of the community. But people saw the potential, and then you sold out. Of course we're disappointed.

      PS: I also remember originally when people mentioned donations you said that this wasn't your full time job abs that you weren't in this for money. It seems that's changed somewhere along the way.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +99 Vote: I do not like it

        Is there no viable model for making money in CP or is there just too much money in interview prep?

        Pretty much, there's no generally viable model. Winning competitions with big prizes is one way, but that's obviously limited to the top few. If you check how much YT pays, it's pretty damn low for thousands to tens of thousand of views — good to earn some extra cash, but not good enough to live off it. Of course, there are other factors like getting paid a US wage for Polish living expenses which make it better, but that's very specific to the personal situation. Earning, say, $1000/month off streaming CP is tough, not to mention you always have a chance of being deplatformed for being too small (not clickbaity enough) because YT is ran by a scummy corporation.

        Another option is paid subscriptions or getting donations / directly paid for coaching, but the latter isn't exactly "getting paid for streaming" and free resources are so common that most people don't want to pay on a regular basis.

        The userbase is ultimately too small and the topic doesn't lend itself to streaming for money very well, so I can see why he's going for quantity over quality. What I'd do, though, is look for other ways to earn money. If I ever stream something, it's going to be tough problems and I'd mix in something more exciting than looking at someone type code — I'm talking about AOE2.

        Speaking of which, let's compare with a streaming model for AOE2. The community of people who can play the game pretty well has been growing massively in the last few years, streamers make fun content and engage with the community, so they get some donations. Top 1-2% players can have showmatches that serve multiple purposes: - get paid something like $50 for losing, $100 for winning - have something to stream from your POV (fog of war, realtime) - give other streamers something to cast from a POV where you see everything

        Then, Twitch has a paid subscription model which works much better because you can watch more dynamic, more casual stuff basically every evening, you get emotes referencing stream memes, you can attach a custom message (troll the streamer) etc. There's even a lot of small streamers that are known in the community, just play because they like it and can barely subsist, but that's with tens of concurrent viewers.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +98 Vote: I do not like it

        You would donate $20 per video? Really?

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
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          Believe it or not, many youtubers have patreon set up to get donations per video and $20 is the high end people actually give. Assuming of course the videos aren't just the kind of daily cash grab that Errichto does nowadays.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it -13 Vote: I do not like it

            Yeah, there are also people who spend thousands on freemium games. I'm not talking about "what is the high limit on what people can give".

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it +65 Vote: I do not like it

              Sure and someone might give Errichto a million bucks but you know that's not what I meant don't play dumb.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +45 Vote: I do not like it

          If he was uploading it twice a year that's fairly affordable.

          I pay 15$ for Netflix a month — I dont think it's ridiculous to add another payment into that a couple times a year.

          I would also just like to encourage Errichto to produce more content like that.

          Of course, if he was making a video of that quality a week- that'd be great but I probably can't afford 20$ a week.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

            You have much, much more varied content available on Netflix. It's not comparable.

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it +64 Vote: I do not like it

              I get more value from CP, and while Netflix is pure degeneracy, I consider doing CP to be moderately productive.

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                5 years ago, # ^ |
                Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

                Sure, but people pay for Netflix because it's how they get their daily dose of pure degeneracy. You'd be hard-pressed to find people willing to fund CP streamers well enough, although I'd gladly be proven wrong.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -24 Vote: I do not like it

      Why are you wasting time on it?

      It became irrelevant once you said, "Youtube and coding interview teaching are becoming my job." I'm active on discord. Did watch some of your BPS and I'm sure I didn't hear this before. All I heard was you teach people CP. Give lectures in camps etc. In that case its something off-topic.

      Reminder: such videos/streams are my hobby, not a job.

      I hope and think that I helped the CP community more than an average user, and I'm not obligated to continue doing so forever.

      True. But the problem which humans are they keep demanding more when you provide them something until you say stop now I cant provide more. I can't message a random CPer and say please start a youtube channel because I want some educational content. But I can take some liberty to ask someone who already did in past.

      Remember people keep copy-pasting problems in your discord channel and you answered a few times and later you said stop asking here. I cant do more.

      Your priorities did shift from the day you created channel and today. I should not blame for this. When you started you were in a similar position to some who just started CP. On the go, you discovered this is the market and this is what the majority wants. Nothing wrong from the point of view of a creator.

      You did anticipate this comment. Maybe that's the reason for "Errichto 2". "Errichto" on day of creation was rebranded as "Errichto 2".

      I try not to spam and only post relevant things. I'm looking now at my recent blogs and I think that people here should be interested. Last two months: coding until 100k, introduction to cp, hash code warm-up, atcoder&leetcode&cf, bitwise operations.

      Agreed. This post is the only post which may not interest people here. But still, you have full rights to share your excitement and just that inactiveness of "Errichto 2" resulted in this comment. Looking it now doesn't seem bad or spam. People do like to hear a lot about what other CPers are doing. What is their new achievement even if it's not related to CP.

      Upd -
      Chilli comment essentially summarises what I wanted to say, ask and is written in a much better way and tone.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +40 Vote: I do not like it

        aryanc403 I agree with all your points but still don't be too harsh, you don't owe him. It's his choice.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

          True. I know first comment is bit harsh. But not sure about this one. Maybe I should work on my tone.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +235 Vote: I do not like it

            I don't see anything harsh in your comments. Maybe not the best person to judge though

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

          Nah, speak your mind. If you're really frustrated, you should make that frustration clear, not say it in the style "but well I don't care/mind". You may get flak for being honest, but at least you're expressing what you think, not what you don't think.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it -150 Vote: I do not like it

            Let me speak my mind:
            Um_nik i found you to be the most stupid and idiot person on Codeforces Community.I don't know why but your views are against most people on most of the posts(such a Nerd). You are harsh most of the times in your comments(maybe because you are grown in such an environment) and Xellos you just keep preaching knowledge on every other post on CF.

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it +259 Vote: I do not like it

              You couldn't fucking answer the right comment, how can I be the most stupid if you exist?

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      There are more upvote in your comment than your blog ^^

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
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    Couldn't agree more!

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +135 Vote: I do not like it

Man, why do you hit your subscribers?

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

@errichto please make videos algorithm wise and not problem wise then u may solve some problems from each algorithm in the same video or subsequent ones this will attract a larger crowd and it will also help the viewers because now the videos are more organised

other than that u have an awesome channel running and u are helping the people who are beginners with good explanations ( which is for some reason very hard to find )

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for this, i will also try to solve with you side by side (just go a little slow, so that i have a time to think) ,.... i hope this will help me to improve...........

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

One side he is making videos on linklist , leetcode , interview type question and other side making videos on "how to become red on codeforces" and guiding nothing to reach expert atleast :P . He is very high rated competitive programmer and I totally respect him.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

Let's unsubscribe from the channel to make this stream as long as possible <3 <3

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

He's gonna hit 100k even before the video starts.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +98 Vote: I do not like it

Whats-App-Image-2020-04-14-at-4-33-03-PM .

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +181 Vote: I do not like it

How about hitting 100k non-Indian subs?

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +287 Vote: I do not like it

OK, let me drop this weight from my heart. Some people here say that aryanc403 or Chilli are just jealous of Errichto success. That's unlikely, since I don't recall them having a channel. I think that they are really just disappointed viewers, who would like to increase the quality to their liking.

On the other hand, I do have a YT channel related to CP, and I am very jealous. I would even say that I'm more jealous of tmwilliamlin168. "Winning Google Kickstart Round A 2020", "Winning Codeforces Round #628", "Winning Leetcode Weekly Contest 182". Let me cite Google Kickstart page: "Hone your coding skills with algorithmic puzzles meant for students and those new to coding competitions". You don't seem new to coding competitions to me, why are you participating? I have also recently won a Codeforces round and did a screencast. Oh, right. IT WAS DIV 1 ROUND AND I BEAT TOURIST BY A WHOLE PROBLEM. I don't see 200k watchings for some reason. Maybe the reason that I'm naming the video exactly like other, because winning shouldn't have effect on the quality of video.

I don't think that my screencasts with commentary are much worse than those of Kamil or William.

I understand that to get popularity you have to do content for masses. And that means having clickbait names. But I can't respect that, sorry.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -128 Vote: I do not like it

    Your videos suck.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +86 Vote: I do not like it

      I totally agree, but I won't listen to account registered a day ago. Can I please have more negative views from real people so that I can close the channel and never think about it anymore?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it -94 Vote: I do not like it

        You don't listen to anyone for that matter and that's the reason you needed to apologize for your dumb responses on your YouTube channel and you accepted that you don't take criticism well.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +96 Vote: I do not like it

          I needed to apologize? No, that was not the reason for that video. Also go fuck yourself.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

      Just like your Mom.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +78 Vote: I do not like it

    No sound, reading statements of problems in Russian(i guess) and expect 200k people watch. How? What about those who don't know Russian?

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

      I don't expect 200k watches, but I also don't expect any watches on William videos.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +78 Vote: I do not like it

        There is no cure for jealousy.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

        Why the hell are you jealous of tmwilliam, his content is very good, you can learn from anybody. Maybe you should learn from him.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

        William gives some nice explanations man and that too just after the contest ends. Sometimes we beginners run into problems with late/short/inadequate editorials and channels like that of stefdasca,tmwilliamlin168,RomeoFantastik are doing a great job explaining it right after the contest ends(and not just straight away implementing). So just because you don't like his videos doesn't mean anyone else won't either. If you are so concerned about your views you should do something about it instead of showing your jealousy through hate in this blog (or even other blogs...you are really arrogant tbh)

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -149 Vote: I do not like it

      Those who don't know Russian are either stupid and not worth my time, or can use the link in the description, go to round and read the statements. Also you can pause the video if you want to read the code more carefully. Rocket science?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +107 Vote: I do not like it

        Then why do you think someone will waste their 2 hours looking at a screen which they are unable to even understand what is written + no sound. How the hell you can expect people to watch your streams(facepalm)?

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

        To be honest, the language barrier is a big issue for watchers atleast. Ofcourse, at the end, it is your decision and no one can ( and should ) affect it. I just visited your channel and saw that I have only gone through 2 videos till the end ( one was div3 CF Round 579, and I couldn't solve only last problem ). Other videos ( that I have opened ) only have like 10mins of my view time. Maybe some of those times, I stopped because I didn't have 2hrs to view the whole screen cast. Whereas, I haven't ever ( if I have, I can't recall ) stopped midway on Errichto's videos, apart from 5hr Boring Programming Streams.

        I want to see more content from you, because you are at the very top ( Congrats on the win against tourist, I didn't know because I am in div2 ). I remember telling my friends, "Guys, Umnik has youtube channel too!". But, it seems something is missing, atleast for me. I would like to hear English, for sure. But, as I said, that is upto you. I am very happy to see just code, when it's from people at the top. So, maybe you could try shorter videos instead of whole contests? Videos targeting specific hard problems ( I would like to watch div2 E/F, div1 B/C/D ). This is all just a suggestion, but thanks for your hard work!

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
        Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +83 Vote: I do not like it

        In case you didn't know, we can also see your submissions on Codeforces. So you don't need to upload these kinds of screencasts at all.

        No need to thank me for this life hack.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +41 Vote: I do not like it

          That's true, I guess I should stop

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
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        Really??people who dont understand russian are stupid?? I didnt expect this from you man.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
          Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

          Actually from his words one can feel that he is either upset or frustrated with something. his comments are stupid today

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

            If you read his past comments he is always upset aboit something.

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it -9 Vote: I do not like it

              He is one of the best coders and not getting the same admiration as errichto and william lin or some other gets. so i think that could be a possible reason.

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                5 years ago, # ^ |
                  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

                If he wants more views then he should make visually and content-wise appealing videos in English. It's simple

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +62 Vote: I do not like it

          That's not what he said though.

          Those who don't know Russian are either stupid and not worth my time, or can use the link in the description

          Equivalently: if you don't understand Russian AND don't use the link in the description, you are stupid. Which is a much more reasonable claim.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +27 Vote: I do not like it

    Because screencasts are neither interesting nor educational. We already know the result (live screencasts may be entertaining but it's not possible for an online round). If I just want to read your codes, I can go through your submissions instead. I am pretty sure most people who subscribed to tmw didn't do it for his screencasts. They probably like his other videos and watch the screencast anyway when it pops up in their feed. Also, a lot of viewers might have just searched "google codejam round 1" on YT and his screencast appeared at the top because it already had decent views (due to his subscribers). I am sure your viewership will rapidly increase if you post more interesting/ educational content. But I guess making that kind of content is much harder than just recording your screen during a contest.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it
      Because screencasts are neither interesting nor educational.

      They are both interesting and educational, but only for a relatively small set of participants.

      If you take the most recent div3 round with 25k+ participants, it is not only true that most of them will pick "How to become red?" video that tells them to practice over some random boring screencast, it is also true that most of them will benefit more from "Go practice" video.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
        Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

        Interesting is subjective so I guess maybe there are some people who enjoy watching others write codes for 2 hours. I wouldn't know as I am not one of them. For me, it's like watching an old football match that you have already watched live (WITH NO COMMENTARY).

        I can agree that screencasts may be somewhat educational (particularly when the creator is willing to sacrifice their rank somewhat by explaining things alongside) but watching an in-depth video explaining a hard problem (Div1D/E) would be infinitely many times better than watching an LGM stare at the problem statement for 10 mins and then magically start writing its code.

        Of course, Div3 participants would benefit much more from practice than watching screencasts. I am just saying that they aren't educational for purples/oranges either.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

          One of the major benefits that you get there is observing how people actually solve problems.

          It is not something that is typically covered in editorials and online discussions. And even when people solve some practice problems on live stream, they are often doing it significantly differently from how they behave in actual contest.

          There are lots and lots of various small things, like how people read statement and samples, what tests they use, how they debug their code, what they do after WA, how they write stress-tests, and so on. You can come up with all of that by yourself, but it is often more time-consuming than learning from others.

          Obviously if you are watching the video mainly for entertainment purposes, you don't really care about it. When I'm watching sports events, I'm usually not thinking about how to get better at particular sport :)

          Also, like we both agree here, for beginners it is often not something to worry about too much, as they have more important pieces to figure out first.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

            I noticed that I'm unable to just watch someone solve a problem. It's either boring or I'm distracted by solving it myself.

            I like AOE2 streams because there is a "thinking" part, but it doesn't interfere with watching the players do something or, alternatively, listening to the streamer and memeing with the chat. Also, I can jump in at any time and won't feel out of the loop.

            A programming stream would need to have a separate component of explaining the chosen way of thinking, but it's mostly watching someone type or say what's on the screen. I just lose interest quickly.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    .

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +62 Vote: I do not like it

    OMG, he's really bragging about taking a candy from a baby. If I was in his fan club, I'd be embarassed.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +131 Vote: I do not like it

    IT WAS DIV 1 ROUND AND I BEAT TOURIST BY A WHOLE PROBLEM.

    There's no debate that you are indeed much more impressive than I am. orz

    winning shouldn't have effect on the quality of video.

    Adding "winning" to the title doesn't affect the quality of the video, but wouldn't people want to watch and learn from the best performances?

    And that means having clickbait names. But I can't respect that, sorry.

    It's not just me, most big YouTubers have some form of "clickbait", so I don't understand why it's bad that I'm doing it (and my titles are actually 100% true, unlike some other YouTubers). Whether you like it or not, that's how YouTube (and advertising in general) works.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

    How would you life become any different once your videos start getting 200k views?

    It doesn't sound like you are planning to do it for living.

    Most likely it will only make you deal with more "Sir how can I become red" comments and messages, which is probably not what you are looking for.

    Or do you see these views as a proxy of people being able to distinguish high quality content from low quality content?

    Most people watching competitive programming videos are doing that for reasons other than actually trying to develop their skills.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

      Edit: Oops, the parent comment was a reply to Um_nik's comment and not mine, I_love_Tanya_Romanova's longer username tricked me, maybe CF should fix this :)

      How would you life become any different once your videos start getting 200k views? It doesn't sound like you are planning to do it for living.

      I was bored, I wanted to improve my explanations (you can check that many of my videos months before were explanations). Then, coronavirus blew up, there were a few weeks where school shut down. IOI might even be canceled, and I lost the motivation to do any sort of practice. I'm really bored, that's all. I didn't really think I would even get over 20k views.

      Most likely it will only make you deal with more "Sir how can I become red" comments and messages, which is probably not what you are looking for.

      This is a problem that I didn't really think about, but I don't feel bad about ignoring those messages as 1. I've already explained them in my videos 2. I could use the time to benefit more people.

      Or do you see these views as a proxy of people being able to distinguish high quality content from low quality content? Most people watching competitive programming videos are doing that for reasons other than actually trying to develop their skills.

      Sorry, I don't understand this part.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

        Sorry for confusion, I was replying to the comment by Um_nik regarding him being upset, but the reply thread there is so long that it is not obvious at first glance :)

        I don't have any issues with what you are doing :) And it is not like I care much.

        I'd say it may even be good if you actually manage to generate entertaining content related to competitive programming, and help developing community this way.

        I would have a different opinion about it if you were using this hype to exploit gullible folks, e.g. by selling some crappy "How to become red" tutorials for $$$, but as long as you are only doing harmless stuff — keep it up. And if somebody is finding your videos useful — again, this is a good sign.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

      The life wouldn't change, yep. I don't want to do it for living, yep.

      And I don't want to say that Errichto or tmwilliamlin168 doing something wrong. They do things that most people see as normal and it helps them to increase the audience, which is great, I'm glad that they have a success.

      The thing that it makes me sad. And I'm jealous. I started my comment with that fact. I'm not accusing them of something. I just really can't understand how their videos are better. They are better people, yes, can't argue with that (and don't wanna). Don't understand about videos. (I'm not talking about Kamil's lectures here, that's of course something of another level)

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

        I just really can't understand how their videos are better.

        I don't see 200k watchings for some reason.

        I understand that to get popularity you have to do content for masses. And that means having clickbait names.

        You seem to purposely being stupid. How is somebody supposed to know that "Oh, right. IT WAS DIV 1 ROUND AND I BEAT TOURIST BY A WHOLE PROBLEM." without watching your 2 hour long video. Do you expect people to click on your video if you title it a random string? How are people supposed to know anything about the quality of the video if it's 2 hours long and you don't tell them anything about it?

        Obviously 99.9% of tmw's views are coming from people being recommended his video, thinking "hey that sounds cool", and clicking on it. You're getting 1.1k videos despite your garbage title due to your placement. Saying "Winning 1st place in Codeforces Round 631" isn't clickbait at all, you're just telling somebody why they should click on your video.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

          Once again. I don't expect anybody to watch my videos. You shouldn’t watch them. I don't understand why many people watch their videos.

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

            Ah, because they advertise it better or atleast name it better and talk in English. I didn't even notice your Div 1 win video because... Just check the name you have given.

            I want to watch better people's thought process and other stuff. But I can't binary search on the video to find what is in it. At least mention what is in the video (I am talking about your win against tourist).

            I recently subscribed to William's channel because I liked his video about "mistakes competitive programmers do". It was a good one.

            Again it's your choice if you purposely want to name your videos as such but why are you surprised if you don't get as many views?

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

            Reason is most of the programmers aren't red or orange. Most of them are newbies,specialists,experts and pupils. What errichto does is he provides content of the level so all are fascinated to watch. What william lin does is he sometimes explains the problems first and then solve them (Which he was not doing before like you). If u will start making videos on problems with difficulty level ranging 1600-2000 you will see significant improvement in your views too. Why people will watch you boring screen casts if you don't do commentary in english? Now your point is are they dumb to go to problem statements yaa of course they will go but why will they come back because again you will start in russian. So you want people to see you type.

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              5 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

              I am doing screencasts with commentary, and I am writing it in video title when I do it, so both your claims are invalid?

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                5 years ago, # ^ |
                  Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

                You explanation sucks. You can only understand what you speak and what you are trying to do. William lin and errichto does way better than you . First you should consider making short videos then you will realise to master that art.

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                5 years ago, # ^ |
                  Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

                Um_nik you're sitting on a goldmine with your problem solving ability and personality. You could easily be very popular on Youtube if you condense your videos to be shorter (fast forward?) and give explanations and commentaries in clear English. You could be like tyler1 of CP...

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

            I watch your videos even I don't understand them

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +229 Vote: I do not like it

    Here's why your channel suck:

    • Most your videos are screencast with 0 effort. Why would I spend few hours watching a video with no sound, Russian content and learn mostly 0 from it? You know if I want to read your submission I can just go to your submission page and read your code right?
    • I watched 2 mins of your video with English commentary. Your English & your explanation suck. I don't understand why you think your content is not worse than Kamil. Go watch his livestream. He explained stuff well, used some drawing tool for better visualization.
    • You don't even care what viewers want. Instead of improving your content you just say people are stupid and ignore them.
    • You are rude so many people hate you. Who would watch video of someone who thinks he's better than 1000 cyans?
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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +129 Vote: I do not like it

      bro umnik is really better than 1000 cyans

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +68 Vote: I do not like it

      Your last point doesn't make sense, you could put all cyans (could extend this into higher ranks too) in the world in a team and um_nik is still better than them.

      Edit: I'm not disagreeing with the rude part

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
        Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

        Yes Um_nik is a better coder than 1000 cyans. I'm talking about being rude in general is bad if you want to be a Youtuber. 1000 cyans is only an example, and not the best example.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        You are better than others at something doesn't mean you will call others stupid.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +52 Vote: I do not like it

        Math checks out. According to team rating formula you need 66578 people rated 1500 to have more than 0.5 probability to beat um_nik but number of cyans (with at least 2 contests) is only around 35k and they're mostly low cyan.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

        I would actually watch a contest like this. Can we have a special Codeforces round, all cyans who want to participate vs Um_nik? We can count only the highest-scoring submission for each problem for cyans.

        My guess is that who wins depends on the number of problems, round duration, and average difficulty. On div1 level cyans would lose. On div2 and div3 rounds they will have like 30-70% chance to win. If there are 10 problems with difficulty <= 2000-2200, cyans probably will win.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +67 Vote: I do not like it

          Found preview of the match:

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

      Wow, my explanation sucks? Care to elaborate?

      Agree with everything else

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
        Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +81 Vote: I do not like it

        Let's look at

        Both these problems have rating 2600, but it won't be exactly a fair comparison because of many other factors.

        Errichto:

        • Read statement out loud. Summarize some parts of statement, so it's easier to follow.
        • Thinking:
          • Start with saying graph is special & draw a graph.
          • Explain high level idea (after 1 billion move, no robot are in same position)
          • Make use of drawing to give example
          • Some low-level details are not clear.
        • Coding:
          • Explain what he's doing while coding (e.g. why he's creating function read_row()).
          • Helpful comments (e.g. explain what parent is storing).
          • Long variable names for non-trivial things (e.g. anybody_can_reach_you).

        Um_nik:

        • No explanation of statement.
        • Thinking: very long explanation where I was only able to get very high level idea. It's because of a combination of issues:
          • bad English: I can't figure out many words. Turning on CC did not help.
          • many long pauses
          • explanation have no structure: too much details while overall idea was still not clear.
        • Coding: no explanation. Variable names not helpful (e.g. forPos).
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          5 years ago, # ^ |
          Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -82 Vote: I do not like it

          Wow, you took a problem for which I had 20 minutes so I had to hurry. How about don't be biased? Look at the previous problem in the same screencast for example.

          And I do always read statement out loud in my commentary screencasts. I guess my English is that bad. Or maybe yours?

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +136 Vote: I do not like it

            Sure I was biased and my English is bad. I already wasted 40 mins watching your video + Errichto video where I learned nothing. Let's not waste more of each other's time. Have a nice day and good luck with your channel.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Try teaching something to 1000 cyans, see how many understand? Ask them for feedback.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +121 Vote: I do not like it

    Seems like someone is begging 1000 cyans to subscribe to his channel.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

    subscribed ;)

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Whatever this comment is about, the essence of it is very counter productive and negative. I just Ctrl+F ed the word jealous on this page and its only in your comment. So nobody here said that anyone is jealous of anyone.

    The only message I would like to share which I feel is, that mostly intermediate coders require videos on intermediate topics, and contest explanation videos are also useful (not a fan of screencasts, but there is some sort of audience for that also.)

    So errichto has in the past uploaded many videos that have been helpful, to me personally and to many others. Also tmwilliamlin's channel has been posting videos recently about many contest explanations, which again are useful to beginners and intermediate coders alike. Not sure about Um_nik as it may be useful only to very high rating coders.

    But the issue only is that errichto has stopped uploading knowledge sharing videos which many intermediate coders liked a lot, and I comment here just to reiterate this feeling. As there is lockdown imposed everywhere, all students are having ample time to devote to learning new techniques, and topics, and what else could be the best time to share such videos. I understand that creating videos is no easy task. Once the regular schools and college classes recommence I dont think I will have as much time as now. So this is just an appeal to Errichto on behalf of those who have been coding for some time now to help them break the ice to higher ratings. Thank you!

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    Actually I had watched some of your screencasts on youtube. Sincerely your english voice is not really pure and I guess that maybe the reason.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Of course I cannot compete with native speaker such as William, but I think that my English is not that much worse than Kamil's.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

        I also don't think your English is too bad. But I think you are somehow are biased that everyone can understand things as fast you speak. You are LGM, and most people seeking such content are <=1500.

        You can decide what your target audience is, there are cyans, greens and greys and then there are experts and CM's. These categories are the only significant sized audiences.

        Earlier Errichto's content was more focused on experts to masters. Now he has moved to like cyans, greens and greys, mostly because this category of audiences is bigger.

        Now depending on your target audience you want the explanations to be suited to their level. You can't expect them to know everything above their level, but if you fix your target audience you know they should at least know about common things and you can skip those things in explanations.

        At last I am not demanding something, but I want you to atleast understand why your viewership is less.

        TL;DR: Fix your audience, make explanations suited for their skill level. And bam, you get viewership from audience of that skill level.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    tmwilliamlin168 also has a notepad open. He writes out his thoughts, so the audience can have a chance at following his thought process

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

Lol everyone is triggered in this comment section

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +42 Vote: I do not like it

I see Lockdown has been hard on all of us.

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Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -43 Vote: I do not like it
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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +40 Vote: I do not like it

    Some of dumbest ideas: sending a notification to this thread to each of these people.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -7 Vote: I do not like it

      dont angry i will also put you but in 2nd category.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

        Some of dumbest ideas, part 2: thinking I care about that.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +103 Vote: I do not like it

I'm surely excited to see fellow competitive programmer receiving a silver button. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +277 Vote: I do not like it

I thought this through and here is my long answer to all the comments. It will be me being defensive and sometimes rude, but we're talking about my life and career so I do care.

0) First of all, I just wanted to celebrate a milestone. Couldn't you complain on any other day instead of that one? :/

1) I checked that the last time I did something interesting for yellow/red coders is 10 days ago (Constructive E from GCJ Quals). The official editorial was bad and many people didn't know how to solve it. I spent 5-6 hours (almost a full working day) on preparation and made this video. In last two months I did multiple coding streams with difficult problems: Codingame, Hash Code, Codeforces, AtCoder. Two weeks ago I did videos that focus on popularizing CP. I honestly don't think it's that little of content for you. Somebody here mentioned 3Blue1Brown as a good math YT channel. He makes 1 video per month. It's superior quality but still...

And I'm active in Polish community too. Don't worry, I cover difficult topics there so no need to complain.

2) Some people used coronavirus lockdown as an argument. I don't see how it makes it better to make content for you rather than for beginners. Also, my gf works remotely now and it's convenient for her to use my PC in working hours morning-afternoon, when I would usually stream if I had time. I said that in Discord, did you expect CF blog too? This is in response to person who said:

Corona lockdown. I expected more.
I'm active on discord.

3) There was recently a blog with complaints about the video format. Nobody disagreed.

4) As I said before, I don't have infinite number of ideas for things like EV lectures. We're talking about the intersection of [difficult topics not covered well in articles] and [things I'm good at]. If I spent all my time on that, I would be out of content in a month.

4b) Feel free to suggest things in discord or DM, I still reply to all the messages. I'm often told something like "thanks for videos, they helped me to get to company X" and I don't remember when last time somebody said "your EV lecture was good, please make something similar". I listen to suggestions (and it isn't just choosing topic suggested by most people).

5) Is helping people to get a job so clearly worse than making videos on difficult topics for CP community? I think that the industry of coding interviews doesn't have great tutorials/courses and I can teach it better than others. If I want to pursue it and (as a goal) make the best content on coding interviews and create a go-to place for learning that, will you be angry at me for that? Should there be some upper bound of CF rating for people who teach for coding interviews?

6) Videos > Screencasts or streams. I don't like screencasts and similarly, I don't see that much sense in problem-solving streams. It's easy for me to make them and I enjoy interacting with viewers, but I don't think it's an effective way to learn. It's good to see how a strong person behaves during a contest, but I wouldn't want to watch more than one such video/stream. This is why I never tried to make a lot of those, and btw. other people like Um_nik, Petr, tourist can do it better.

And I find it funny that somebody complained about the lack of my problem-solving streams because well, this blog is an announcement of problem-solving stream (notice "coding" in the title).

7) I don't want to start a Patreon and it shouldn't be a controversial statement. Even more: I bet people would complain if I started one. Are you sure you want to pay me for transforming problem editorials of random CF problems into videos? Because this is the only sustainable thing I could do if you want me to produce content for high-rated people.

8) I had plenty of sponsorship offers and could make a lot of money from these April Leetcode Challenge videos I'm making currently. I rejected them and just produced videos to help people and grow my channel. It feels sad to be called a sell-out: "and then you sold out". I made something useful for you and then decided to focus more on a wider audience? Sorry about that, I guess.

8b) If you paid me 1 million dollars now to only make quality Competitive Programming content for next 5 years, I wouldn't accept the deal. As I said in the past, I have enough money to live comfortably. Let me do what I want, please? (I'm not saying that everybody here tried to force me to do just one thing in my life.)

9) Just like many of you, I love Competitive Programming as a hobby. I make some useful content from time to time, but also have some other plans in my life. This comment with 360 upvotes makes me fucking sad and was the main reason for me to write this longer essay now.

When I was watching his early lectures like the ones you mentioned I could not have imagined that the channel would transform into nothing but daily low effort click-bait videos of an IGM flexing how he can solve div3 difficulty problems in x seconds.
But hey I guess the man has to make a living somehow.

I really try to get good at explaining things and I try to help people, while also making this my career. Making videos takes more time than you think. I even watch videos and lectures by other people in order to see what they do well or badly, and learn from that. Also, your life wouldn't be better if I didn't make custom thumbnails and catchy titles. (FYI this is an April Leetcode contest with a new problem every day and I'm not going to continue making daily videos after that, obviously. This should be enough to show how I approach a problem from scratch.)

10) disclaimer: I understand that the first comment to start this conversation mainly says I'm unsubscribing because most of your current content isn't for me. I still don't argue with that part. Also, I feel a bit bad about making stupid thumbnails or flexing by participating in easy contests. I heard before from my friends that my channel is becoming worse, and I understand reasons to say that.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

    Errichto please ignore these people's (Um_nik and Co.'s) comments. Everyone faces idiots like these one time or the other in life. You are doing just fine with your YouTube channel.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +45 Vote: I do not like it

      Actually, I don't think Um_nik said anything negative about me. But I get your point.

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  Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

At last, done reading all comments (and wasting a lot of time) but it was good.

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  Vote: I like it -14 Vote: I do not like it

At last, It just seems Um_nik is just an arrogant and a rude guy. That comment about non-russian speakers was really a racist remark but that's just his opinion, you can't force someone to change their opinion but it really shows about the mentality and upbringing of such people. Now his army and ardent followers will come and downvote this but again I don't care about votes being a pupil :)