Hey everyone! I’m excited to share something important with you.
Over the past two years, I’ve walked a long road in competitive programming — through thousands of problems, hundreds of contests, ups and downs, burnout, and bouncing back. And now, I’ve written a book that captures all of that experience.
But this isn’t just a guide. It’s a motivational and educational book — for high school students, university students, and anyone who wants to grow stronger in olympiad programming. Inside, you’ll find:
the raw truth about burnout and how to deal with it,
real strategies for consistent growth,
a personal story — from the very first steps to winning gold,
and most importantly, ideas that will help you reach the top — and stay there.
This book is for everyone: beginners and advanced alike.
Download the PDF: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NJ5Qx5ci7GrQeMKZhDakVHqaqg1CdNEg
I’ll be truly grateful if you read it and share your thoughts. This isn’t a textbook — it’s a conversation. From one olympiad programmer — to everyone walking the same path.
See you at the top of the rankings.
воздух
U have mentioned mistakes which i did and what im doing wrongg...Thanks for the book its insightful..will try ascending towards being a better problem solver..:)
Вода
Молния
молния
Boom, this book is really amazing about the personal career in CP, and i really love it. I hightly recommend that people should read it. It gave me the passion to continue learning CP.
god , it came in the perfect time
appreciate man ! looking forward to read it.
This is what I needed as a self-learner! Thank you so much!
It was good man, thanks for sharing your experience.
The best take away from this to me personally is from Chapter 7 (How Olympiad Thinker Operates)
"They don’t take facts as truth. They test them. Twist them. Push the limits. They need to own the knowledge not just rent it."
Ждем следующую книгу про бег
I will write a book once I run a 100 km ultramarathon.
Будем ждать
I've read half of the book so far , I see the great amount of research you've done to explore all possible stumbles on the path of any programmer on the way.
I was thinking of "the good environment" , what if you cannot handle this environment , it's absolutely out of control , unpredictable .
Sometimes I find really rare time where I've good mood , environment etc.. .
(I actually have bad habits mentioned in the book , but I think environment is a factor as well)
Thanks for your honesty — it means a lot.
You're absolutely right: the environment can be unpredictable and overwhelming, and not everything is within our control. Sometimes, even with motivation, the world around you just doesn’t let you move forward.
Bad habits often come from trying to survive in a harsh environment — not from weakness. And if my book ever sounded like “it’s all your fault,” that’s not what I meant at all.
The fact that you're still thinking, reflecting, and trying — that already says a lot. Thanks for sharing this perspective. I’ll carry it with me.
i took a quick look at it , ngl it looks very interesting definitely a great book
Cool book, thanks for writing it!
I do kinda disagree with the part about cutting short videos out of your life though — at least for me, I scroll through quite a bit of instagram reels (+ also enjoy a bunch of mindless video games like osu! and DDR), but don't struggle at all to focus when thinking about problems. I agree that it seems like some people are way too addicted to stuff like that, but I think it's ok in moderation.
Just saying this because it reminds me of my dad telling me stuff like "video games are bad and will ruin your attention span" as a kid, and I don't think this benefited my life much other than making me feel more anxious that I was gonna be a failure.
I second this. I've been watching quite a little bit of short form content too and it hasn't affected my focus whatsoever in CP at all. Short attention spans can be quite problematic, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that there's a direct correlation between CP performance and how much short form content you watch.
it just sounds like you reached a place in life that you are personally satisfied with (despite playing video games and whatnot), and cope with the possibility of having been better by saying "oh, i didn't deteriorate at all", which is obviously not necessarily true because you do not have a clone of yourself that didn't play video games to compare your cognitive function against
such coping mechanisms are fine if you employ them internally, but revealing them publicly harms people who will believe your words and engage in these activities, while having goals that require them to go beyond the mediocrity (relative to their own ability) that such garbage may limit them to
YES! #stopShortFormPropaganda
That argument is symmetrical though, right? You also don't have a clone of yourself that engaged in short form content and had lower cognitive function. You may be publicly harming people by discouraging them to be happier in life by watching funny videos.
That being said, I can empathize with your prejudice against such content, and do imagine that there's a lot of "intellectually mediocre" people who watch it all day. However, my opinion is that this is correlation, not causation — and that the true reason behind their mediocrity is that they don't think about things deeply enough.
holy cope
ok 🤣
Легенда
Great read!
PieArmy is this average kazak?
I have met PieArmy on EJOI, he is very cool!
Hi there :D the book seems great. I will read it!
With Reference to Page number 82, The text reads:
A divides B B divides C
Your example seems to be wrong here. A=12, B=6, C=3. But it should be reverse, i.e. A=3, B=6, C=12
Why? 12 % 6 = 0, 12 % 3 = 0
I mean logically I get you, but grammatically, A divides B means that — B should be divisible by A, You have cited the example B=6,A=12 .This is wrong because 6%12 is not 0. Hope this clears!
Thanks!
Great book for newbies like me
I am here
Thank you
I will read the whole book tonight instead of watching my preplanned movie night .
Thats cool
ill use it now.
will become master before oct 2026
I will wait you there!
Finished? Move on — don’t obsess over one forever
bruhhhhh! this line is hit me so hard I be starting missing my ex :XD
I have read this book and get surprised with end...
bro that part..i can relate i know before one night of JEE Advanced i was listening few songs and next day when i sat for solving the exam the lines of those songs was hitting and ruining thinking/focus like literally....
Thanks for sharing your story, Not sure if it's coincidence but font size kind of reflects the message behind the "short videos" part.
I kind of agree that good healthcare and training methods matter, but I believe the thing that matters the most is building cognitive skills during your training and the rest are just details.
To do this, the most important thing is to enjoy the process. I've seen many people start a problem, make some guesses, code the problem, get accepted, and move on without thinking much about the ideas of the problem. I feel that people who truly enjoy problem-solving spend a while admiring the beauty of the problem, why the idea works, fully proving it, and fully understanding what they are doing, often thinking about the generalization of the ideas or how to approach other problems with them. I agree that this process is slow and doesn't make sense to solve many challenging problems in one training.
I know this well because as a math student, I have been many times in this position. I haven't enjoyed some of the courses I have taken and when studying for these exams I have been in this loop of "Get a problem (not because I want to, but because I am forced to), solve it, but don't think much of what you have done".
Great book! How much time does it take to complete your book? I am also planning to write a book related to competitive programming in my own language.
I think about 100 hours
This was one of the great book I have every read,
It feels like I am reading myself in this book, too much in common,
like watching shorts videos for too long , taking long breakes, cheasing after rating rather than skill , hook up with dp ,solving too many problem in a single day and gone for too much time, facing hard time while come back, and more.
I want to thanks the author for this great book, this book is a life saver man, Thanks a lot soullless.
:) I am very glad this book helped you
More helpful than some videos :)
Once I downloaded the book I couldn't stop until I finished the first chapter.. It was amazing . Good job bro..
Yes, Great book!
Amazing book. Thanks a lot sir
Книга мощная , узнал много нового , переосмыслил программирование . Раньше жил только сравнивая себя с другими слился на респе прочитал эту книгу , импакт от этой книги думаю большой всем советую прочитать, книга написано коротким и ясным языком и можно вполне прочитать за 2-3 часа но главное думаю делать записи что бы не забыть , одна из единственных книг которые я прочитал и кайфанул
The book was a good read. I really liked the emphasis on the health and having hobbies other than coding.
Hi soullless
I recently read your book, You Might Break and That's Okay, and once I opened it, I couldn't stop reading. Thank you so much for writing it and for sharing your experiences.
I saw myself in so many parts of the book. I really appreciated the tips, the mindset, and the way you encourage us to think differently. Deep thinking, as you described, is valuable not only in competitive environments but in many areas of life.
Honestly, I admire your experiences and the way you think. Thank you again — and enjoy your "new" life! Don’t become a robot (or nerd) again :))
Wishing you all the best!
chapter -1 completed
Привет! Если ты ещё не читал эту книгу — бросай всё и начинай немедленно! Это настоящая находка, огонь, который отражает всю суть жизни программиста. Жаль, что она не попала мне в руки раньше… Но, как говорится, лучше поздно, чем никогда.
Огромная благодарность Жану — за труд, за мудрость, за вдохновение. Книга полна ценных советов, к которым стоит возвращаться снова и снова. Выпишите для себя главное.
Моя благодарность — всего лишь капля по сравнению с океаном, который вы подарили нам.
very helpful book ,thanks
Definitely a beautiful book. Great Work!
A great book, a great example of progress.
I read your book. Great book, and I learned something new.
Thanks, man.
Thank you very much for book. I read and finished an hour ago. I hope this book will be loved by another people
me too :)
Such a great read! Thanks for sharing this, learned a lot.
Thank you so much @soullless for sharing this, i'm an absolute beginner who started learning his 1st programming language as C and followed by C++ before 2 months and started doing cp.
I gave a div 4 contest and was only able to solve A problem, felt so bad
and later reading the book I felt, that everyone has faced the same problem and I too have to cross it :)
Read the entire thing this afternoon and really appreciate the holistic suggestions on the growth mindset that goes beyond just the approach to solving problems. Great contribution!
Hi soullless, realy enjoy reding your book especially the part about olympian mindset, usually when i read editorials end up to understand the solution but not looking where this comes from. "They need to own the knowledge, not just rent it." very strong quote, i'll embrace this midset.
Thank You so much for this :)
Hey, just sat down to read your book.
Loved the final chapter, props to you for having the emotional intelligence / maturity to be able to reflect upon difficult topics. To be able to make the tough decisions that made you enjoy life.
Finished reading. It was exactly what I needed to hear to keep pushing forward. Thank you, really.
Thank you so much @soullless for sharing this! I'm also facing many of the same problems, and your book has helped me a lot.
Loved it. Exactly the tips I needed right before an olympiad. I ask teachers and some professional coders, and the only answer I get is "Solve subtasks". Like I know that. This book taught me everything I needed to know. I'll probably read it multiple times before I'm done
Inspirational Stuff!
если нужно автоматизировать некоторые свои действия, то программка Hetic X.1000 поможет
Thanks for sharing this amazing book.
It’s a wonderful book.Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
This is AI slop :pensive:.
This is the first negative comment :)
Hi,
Just completed reading your book.
Just thinking why aren't you solving the problems these days? You mentioned to keep in touch right?...
By the way I am that newbie who solved 1000+ problems over all the platforms combined and doom scrolled, solved blindly and wasted 4 years :{
Will start solving now with new mindset. Although I can't dedicate more than an hour per day as I started working...
I think that is because most English speakers are non-natives and are unable to detect AI. Moreover, most people do not leave negative comments on a Master's post as they believe that they are not "orz" enough.
You clearly have the experience to write a good book, but you instead chose to take some AI slop and slap your name on it. But I am curious about why you decided to use AI to write it all instead of writing it manually?
Also, it has not been appropriately typeset. You could have at least written it in LaTeX.
Dear my friend, my level of English is B2, are you sure that you want to read the book with broken english by 16 year old non-native teenager? I wrote it in russian without AI and user AI to translate the book and keep the style of text
I can't read Russian, but I suppose the russian version is pretty good. However, I think the AI did not translate it correctly. I've translated other languages (primarily Japanese) into English before, and the translations did not sound like this. It feels like the AI has hallucinated and does not represent your true thoughts written in Russian. Most of the stuff in the English version feels like 'yap' rather than an accurate translation.
Russian version is also AI. But the prompt is good though.
And again, if you dont like the book you shouldn't read it and argue with 16year old kid xD
Should a person not speak up when they see something wrong happening? You want to give people knowledge, and you used a translation which I believe does not fulfil your purpose.
As for the 16-year-old point, I am 17 years old myself 😫😫😫😫😫.
I read the whole book, it was really good and insightful. I liked it a lot, highly recommend it, and it felt very relevant as well.
this being exactly what i needed rn, tysm
Can i have tips on getting back on my rhythm?
Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful and helpful book! It is a practical guide for building a CP mindset, developing a strategy, and even living a healthy lifestyle!
Man it helps me so much thank you, I'm trying to do USACO, any helps?
Assalmualaikum
Its a great book to read. I just started to programming.