Hello, friendly folk from Codeforces! Hope all of you have been safe and sound during this pandemic, enjoying problem solving as you always do.
Since the beginning of my university life, I devoted my time solely to competitive programming. During the initial days of lockdown, I invested so much time in it that I started associating problem solving with productivity and productivity with happiness. In July of last year, I became expert for the first time from my main handle. I naturally had to work hard for it, but I truly enjoyed the journey. Every problem I solved, no matter how simple or difficult it was, gave me sheer delight when I got accepted. As I felt I had achieved a personal milestone, I decided to take a break for a few weeks.
It was December when I decided to get back to solving problems. But this time, to my utter dismay, I discovered that I was not enjoying solve problems as much as I used to earlier. Lengthy problem statements became a major hurdle, as I started getting distracted halfway through reading them. This was an issue I never encountered before, given I had solved over 500 problems in UVa online judge, which is notorious for its verbose problem statements. I tried in other judges that I used before, like AtCoder, SPOJ or CodeChef, but all efforts were in vain.
I'm not sure how many of you have ever faced this, but if you have, could you please shed some light on how I could get back the joy that I used to get from problem solving in my earlier days? If that is not possible, how can I possibly get motivated to put efforts in solving more advanced problems? I've never been afraid of hard work, but I just need some feasible objective that I can work towards.
I am really not considering quitting problem solving, since it is the only thing I ever truly enjoyed from an educational perspective. Academic projects that are development-oriented never attracted me to a great extent. I feel I have so much to learn from programming contests, and quitting it would make me miss out on that.
I could really use some constructive suggestions regarding this. Thank you for your time, and stay safe!
stop using alt. accounts first
Edit : oh, sorry, it's my alt. but i would have commented the same from my main account as well
Is it possible to not feel satisfied when you see green "Accepted".
Could you elaborate, please? Are you implying that when I get accepted on a problem, I should not feel content?
Okay. I was just being sort of sarcastic.
I meant That it is not possible to "not feel satisfied" on getting accepted on a problem. When you get Accepted on a problem, you must feel content.
Anyways, I have no answer to your question.
Just Guessing, Why dont you find a compelling reason to do CP. If you can't then why even both doing or not doing CP.
Actually, why dont you write down top 5 reasons here, why you want yourself to be interested in CP Again (Means why you like CP).
CP — Competitive Programming
Can u summerize?
Note : There is a lot of courses that you could to do problem solving.
For instance :
All image manipulation based courses like DSP, Image Processing etc have quite problem solving in themselves. Example Course : https://pjreddie.com/courses/computer-vision/
Example Project : Try to solve this problem of making a client-server model to send messages from client1 to client2 using low level TCP/UDP level C Apis. I am definite you would learn a lot. Iff possible add multi-threading.
TRY DIFFERENT THINGS NOW. THIS IS WHAT I WOULD SUGGEST.
Take a look at Petr Mitrichev's advice. In particular,
Now to answer your question:
What is the reason why you don't enjoy solving problems? If it's just lengthy problem statements that annoy you, I'm sure you'll get used to dealing with them. I do not meet to disparage you when I say that Codeforces (and Atcoder et al.) problems are simpler than OI (Informatics Olympiad) ones. When I first began practising for my country's informatics olympiad, I seriously struggled on OI problems. I took my time to adjust and, after a few months, I began to love OI just as much as Codeforces. My suggestion is to take the time to immerse yourself in whatever problem you're working on and not worry about how long you're taking. If you end up spending a week on a problem, but rejoice upon solving it, then that's a win. (Needless to say: if you're stuck, then it's time to read an editorial.)
Finally, please post on your main account. Cheers!
Thank you very much for your kind and constructive response. I really appreciate it.
About long statements: no, it's not just that. Solving problems in itself does not feel as much of an achievement as it used to. The difficulty is not a concern. It's possible that I might be suffering from a burnout due to extensive practice, but it's not supposed to last this long if this is the case. Besides, I know seasoned veterans in competitive programming who were consistent in their journey throughout.
I'm not sure what difference it would make if I post on my main account, though.
You're welcome.
Are you sure that it's not burnout? Just because some "seasoned veterans" were consistent in their practice doesn't mean that everyone else is--or should be.
I think the benefits of posting on your main account are that:
You are more sincere. (not that you aren't!)
By not hiding behind an alt, you build up your self-confidence. I'm sure this will be useful in real life. :P
I wish there was some surefire way to confirm whether it is a burnout or not.
If it is indeed one, how can I recover from it soon enough?
I'm happy to take Petr Mitrichev and Plasmatic's advice. (The comment below)
There is no shame in taking a break, or even dropping something you once loved until you're enjoy it again.
I've been lacking motivation to practice over the summer so I've just.. stopped trying, and there's nothing wrong with that.