EternalFire's blog

How to stop being addicted to cp
By EternalFire, history, 6 years ago, In English

Recently I have participated in the national olympiad of my country. Sadly, I wasn't able to pass to the next round (Team Selection Test). After failing exam, my family, teacher and friends advised me to learn English and other things (I can't participate in the national olympiad next year). But I'm not interested in it at all, so I still spend many time solving problems. Because solving problems is the only thing that help me to be happy and forget about the failure.

So I asked here if anyone give me an advice to improve myself. Thanks for reading.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +196 Vote: I do not like it

Become a drug addict.

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

Just go with the flow. :) I think you are doing great.

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6 years ago, # |
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Get red and you will have a ton of bragging rights! Just do it!

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6 years ago, # |
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I'd say that the failure itself shouldn't matter in whatever decision you make. Probably it's just the fact that this was your last olympiad and you would've had a couple more contests if you hadn't failed. I totally feel you, and keeping doing problems can be a decent call. It's important to do what makes you happy.

On the long run though, chances are that you may eventually realize you wish you had done something else as well. Next year you'll be going to uni, I suppose, which means that you'll get the chance to experiment all sorts of new stuff and to learn more about topics that may look boring right now, but could eventually light a spark in you (for example, I hated analysis, and now I'm doing a greeeat Continuous Mathematics course in university which is just as interesting as CP).

I'd say try learning and experimenting new stuff, regardless of whether they are related to Computer Science or some other subject or a sport, or watching some series, or joining a club or whatever. The thing is that, although hardly, you could do that whilst also doing CP, with the right time distribution. After getting used to having CP for long, you'll probably need an actual focus to get started with doing something else as well, so exploring more on a demanding topic would definitely work (and there are surely enough many topics to consider)

As for the purpose of becoming better at CP itself, the standard advise is practice, practice, practice. It seems you don't lack that so maybe try to opposite: take a break, let your brain relax for a bit, and do it again under much less stressful conditions. Doing some maths may work from a certain level, it's important you're able to feel things and visualize different phenomenons very clearly.

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6 years ago, # |
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Do you guys abbreviate competitive programming as CP intentionally? I can't help but laugh at titles like "best cp site", "i'm addicted to cp"... on codeforces

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6 years ago, # |
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If solving problems helps you forget about your past experience, then why not keep coding?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +94 Vote: I do not like it

Just solve all problems on all online judges. When there are no more problems, there is nothing to be addicted to.

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6 years ago, # |
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Go through and best of luck.

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6 years ago, # |
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I thought you were talkin about Club Penguin... lol .-.

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6 years ago, # |
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I also failed to reach TST this year, but I'm still gonna participate next year. It's your life after all and if you're passionate about it, don't let anything stop you.

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