(This is a shitpost. There is no scientific evidence for what I say. You shall not take it seriously.)
As a matter of fact, psychology is a magic for tracking our minds. Most people don't understand why they lose their temper when they are offended, but I do. That's why I always understand why I want to f*** someone. For two apparent reasons, I shall claim that psychology helps with CP:
It helps you to know your thinking better. Yes, but, even if you don't know psychology, you may also understand your thinking process. However, there are a lot of numb nerds who never pay attention to their minds, so it's necessary for them to take a dose of psychology. After all, your brain is your weapon. If you use your weapon without knowing its mechanism, how are you going to maximize its efficiency? It's almost like using Windows operating system for 20 years without knowing how to ctrl+C and ctrl+V. You are wasting your talent. Also you can't pride yourself for knowing algorithms when you can't even talk about your brain's algorithm.
You know better your negative emotions. Do you notice how many people care too much about their rating (me included)? And could you recall your sweaty hands and pinky face when you are coding a problem in the last few minutes in ICPC? And don't even forget how negative emotions affect training: you grind on a 1600 problem for 100 hours because you are afraid of admitting being a failure? However, spending over 5 hours on a goddamn 1600 problem is very stupid. Even if you finally solve it, it's an unnecessary invesment of time, which can be used otherwise (dating, watching Squid Game, learn how to binary search like Um_nik). What's more, when you need to take a hollistic view of a problem, you dive too quickly into the details because you are too anxious and impatient to "feel" about a problem. Yes, to feel, like how you feel the taste of a cheeseburger you ate yesterday. That's why people like galen_colin claims they can "smell" the solution of a problem. Besides, I don't know how many of you have insomnia, but I clearly have. Imagine how easy it would be for me to reach 2300 from now (2082) if my sleep becomes God-tier. Insomenia is caused mostly by anxiety and depression, which is God's punishment for highly intelligent people (This is backed up by science).
How about philosophy? Well, philosophy broadens your view. When you can't solve a less-than-2200 problem for an hour, chances are, your mind is very fixated on your habitual way of thinking. To clear up most people's misconception, CP is not about speed, but about thinking out of the box. jiangly solves most div2E within 20 minutes, and I solve in 2 hours, not because he thinks 6 times as fast, but because he takes fewer stupid steps in wrong directions. Philosophy helps you to question the way you perceive the world, which I believe includes the CP problems in this world. Therefore, you have to be constantly questioning your habitual way of formulating/guessing/proving/coding for a problem. And such endeavor of forever questioning of our habits is no difference to philosophical thinking.
In conclusion, psychology and philosophy are really good weapons for CP, and beyond. They also help you quit CP when your life is a mess i.e. when you realize you have no friend. Aside from all the crap we went through in this CP journey, I still want you to remember: there's beauty in this suffering, and always, always try your best to appreciate, how much meaning and purpose, this little mental game has brought to our lives. Thank you for reading.
