TwentyOneHundredOrBust's blog

Shape rotators and competitive programming
By TwentyOneHundredOrBust, history, 3 years ago, In English

Recently twitter has invented a new meme: shape rotators vs. wordcels. The gist is that some people are able to conjure and manipulate mental images (shape rotators) and others can't and must think in words (wordcels). Being a shape rotator is supposedly associated with success in STEM fields and high net worth. (Even Vitalik Buterin, IOI bronze, has tweeted about this.)

Of course, the rational question is: are shape rotators better at competitive programming?

There are a variety of tasks to determine if you are a shape rotator or not. Notably, the twitter meme began taking off with this image:

(Some individuals are unable to do this.)

There are a ton of other tasks associated with shape rotation. My favorite is zigzag (NOTE: if not working, use firefox), a rotation game where you attempt to last for as long as possible:

(If you can pass 1 minute in this game, you are most definitely a shape rotator.)

Two additional tasks are cubescore and apple, spoilered for brevity:

cubescore
apple

So, what's the relationship between shape rotation and CF rating? Let's find out.

Form link

Results will be available soon!

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Comments Comments (29)
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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

Wow!
That's a really interesting trend. I have thought about it for several years now and only talked about this idea to my friends, but I used different examples. Two of the examples we used are

  1. 360 swing. I asked friends could you imagine making a full 360 swing without distortions and still maintaining first person view. I cannot do that. At first I start with the first person view, but then I suddenly start viewing everything from 3rd person.

  2. Imagine a room with a table and chairs standing randomly and you need to be able to relocate yourself smoothly (without teleporting) from one chair to another. Every time I relocate, I lose some number of chairs and I need to make conscious effort to bring them back to life.

I really think this shape rotator thing has some prospects and I will track how it goes.
Thank you for this post!

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    What do you mean by the table and chairs standing randomly? Are they all in the upright position and just around the edge of the table?

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      Yes, normal upright standing position, all standing around the table but looking in different directions. Probably you could increase difficulty by using non-conventional/non-physical states, but the simplest example is enough to overheat my brain =)

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3 years ago, # |
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"My favorite is zigzag, a rotation game..."

Can somebody explain what happens if I press left/right arrows? I do not get it.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    You control the line from the perspective of the line.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      exactly, and the irregular rotation of the view is merely distraction.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +81 Vote: I do not like it

    i do not get it.

    Congats your a wordcel.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -8 Vote: I do not like it

      Well, seems so ;)

      I actually still do not get it. At some point of time the game ends. When/Why exactly?

      Edit: The game ends once the wrong direction is pressed, or no press at all for a to long time.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

    Simply put, press left to go counterclockwise and right to go clockwise.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -6 Vote: I do not like it

    The game doesn't work in chrome, use firefox

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

      I just played it in Chrome

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
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        That's weird, it doesn't work on my machine, but thanks, I have updated the post to reflect it (it never dies on chrome for me)

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3 years ago, # |
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Better try this game: https://redsquare.2-na-2.ru/

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

    Best was < 5 sec at the start but after like 50+ tries got to stable 12 seconds+ and max 17 secs.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      My question is: "Can you drastically improve your shape rotating level by practice?"

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +121 Vote: I do not like it

help got addicted to the zig zag game

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for the Game btw :)

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

(If you can pass 1 minute in this game, you are most definitely a shape rotator.)

Was able to get 50 seconds somehow. Guess good enough for blue

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    Wow...I lasted 3 seconds and played 6 times.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +67 Vote: I do not like it

I think this type of stuff is just made for people to feel special for general things. I just don't believe that people can't imagine shapes and the more geometry-related work I do the better my imaginary figures become. So, IMO it's just there to give you a feeling that you have something in common with the best people in the world. It doesn't matter if you are wordcel or shape rotators if you work hard enough you're gonna get it. I'm good at imagination but here I'm a mere pupil.

Spoiler
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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +32 Vote: I do not like it

    that's exactly what a wordcel wud say

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    I think the same about this as you do. Most of the skills can be developed by simply practicing. It's upto people to want to.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      That's a good attitude to have for the first several years =)

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    Hard work is not always enough. But I do agree with the rest, just another funny games

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

still waiting for the results!

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

    There aren't even 50 responses yet, I'd like to wait for 100 or so... but maybe it's not happening. When do you think I should release them / make simple graphs?

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

here are the results:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nxMB-VD2wg4kIn1aFjt_4oJ1LQSsLFakuZt-3_izbtE/edit?usp=sharing

Cute graphs later

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

The "can't visualize an apple" thing seems to be called aphantasia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

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