I'm sure at some point, perhaps when I hit candidate master, my ability to actually think of solutions will matter more than other things. For now however, I am seeking advice on how to be a consistent problem solver. There are two main problem I have once I get the idea. 1: implementation(efficiently), there is no shortcut I will work on it. 2: effort, if I don't like a problem, my active mind will not only barely help, but actively fight against me, on most(maybe 85%) problem's I have to look at the editorial for, usually what happens is, I look at the editorial and see something that I thought of(not just like a little piece, the whole thing), but just didn't pursue or just disregarded. Like, when I don't like the problem I do some really bad things. Today for example, I didn't do k-- before converting to binary(when I was testing the samples in my head), and so even though I had the right construction I just gave up, because I thought I had found a maximal construction(which I had) but it wasn't working. If I had even taken a second to go an code it or even think about it, I would have realized immediately what my mistake was. I feel like I never makes these kinds of mistakes when I'm at a good mental spot/like the problem(and it mostly has nothing to do with the topic, except for certain constructives which I know I don't like, in case you think its just about me solving topic that I already know). Does anyone have any advice? If I could fix this alone, even with my bad implementation, I feel like I could push 100-200 points past my peak.