Viewing my profile, you can probably see that I don't take contests seriously. This is because I have a different account where I had once reached Expert....
Sadly, I don't know whether I want to continue CP anymore. I've spent 3 years learning all sorts of algorithms, but then in contests, I'm never given the chance to apply those algorithms, and something that really hurts on a personal level is seeing people who have minimal understanding of algorithms solve 1900+ problems by "math abusing". What's the point of spending time and energy(and money) in learning algorithms when you can't even get good results out of it?
Now you learned this in the hard way. Forget the algorithms. Solve problems in problemset.
they are hard
Because it's fun.
the feeling of crushing your opponents is a high for me
I don't like when people say things like this as if alts are casual things. Alts are strictly forbidden by the rules and should never be used or be created.
1.Somehow there is a ton of joy for me in problem-solving. I can't think of many activities that I can do for 3 hours and not feel the time passing.
2.Also, it's a way of escaping my real problems. It seems I keep distract myself all the time. It's hard for me to just stop and do nothing.
3. I've already invested a considerable amount of time into learning and practicing of DSA and problem solving. CP is an effective and joyful way to keep my skills from atrophying.
4. Although it does consume A LOT of my time, it need not to be if I can control it and put it within acceptable time frames in my schedule.
5.The community is good and one can learn a lot
6. It's a good exercise for the brain, if done correctly.
7. This and similar type of problem-solving can , esp. for the young, build a taste for thinking, I mean make thinking sth you crave. I don't think there are many "thinking persons" in the world. It's not sth that evolve naturally in my opinion.
8. the range and value of skills which can be practiced with CP is big, I believe. Though, I am not sure how the value of the skills are to change in the future given accelerating developments in AI.
Not necessarily relevant here, but I just want to share
Now that I think about it, these mfs actually had a point. Soft-boiled eggs are very nice.