nitesh.11911687's blog

By nitesh.11911687, history, 21 month(s) ago, In English

Why I always feel guilty while reading editorials, even after giving good attempt to a problem. Is it normal and fruitful in long run or I am just trapped into some bad habit?

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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Because reading editorial is equivalent to proving I'm bad.

And that is true most of the time.

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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Guilty of reading this blog

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    21 month(s) ago, # ^ |
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    If someone's asking for suggestion/help in community makes you feel guilty then friend sad to say this but people like you make the community toxic.

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      21 month(s) ago, # ^ |
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      Guilty of reading this comment

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      21 month(s) ago, # ^ |
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      no hes right comunity is in a lot of cases very toxic and cringe, pragmaticaly and religously thats bad

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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I find this a bad mindset, if you need the editorial it's not that you are dumb or something, you just didn't know something, that's it. I feel that reading editorials with this sort of mindset only makes you read it "poorly" because you are unwilling to actually learn stuff from the editorial and only want to come up with stuff yourself. Instead I would say that you should start reading editorials more often and more thoroughly (Don't give up on understanding an editorial ever). That's basically all you need to become very good at CP, a passion to learn and a less stubborn mindset.

P.S.:

For reference take a look at some of the improvement in my own progress from the months of November and December. This is no coincidence, this is when I started to really become "ok" with reading editorials.

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    21 month(s) ago, # ^ |
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    Thank you, really different perspective from which I used to think.
    But, The main reason for feeling guilty is problems which I solve are <= 1500 and mostly ad-hoc and every problem seems new and implementation wise its not that hard for me, so by reading editorials most of the time I only get the idea and I think if I can't get the idea while solving the problem then there is very high probability that I won't be getting it next time as well and this feeling makes me feel guilty and I think why can't I get this idea by myself even after trying for more than 1 hr.

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      21 month(s) ago, # ^ |
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      The problems themselves are actually very often not new, even at this level. This is why it is a GOOD idea to read editorials often and try to understand and maybe generalize the ideas in the editorial. I think you may have not completed enough problems yet to realize this or maybe you are just not getting the most you can out of every problem. Try to let go of your ego for a bit and solve problems for the sake of solving them (**MAYBE EVEN TURN OFF TAGS AND PROBLEM RATING IF THAT HELPS**).

      It is also generally a good idea to read editorials for problems you solved by yourself as well to see if there are alternative solutions that may be easier.

      Also you may find it helpful to read editorials line by line and keep trying the problem. In general you shouldn't really be reading editorials unless you are completely stuck and need some sort of inspiration.

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        9 months ago, # ^ |
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        you read editorial after how many minute you stack?

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks for inspiration sir!!!

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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why ru guilty abt reading editorials when its completely harmless

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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I can relate to you very well; during contests, I tried very hard but couldn't solve a problem that I felt I could have been able to solve. After reading the editorial, when I realized how close I was to the solution, I couldn't stop blaming myself over "wasting" a problem.

I remember this quite: If you read the editorial, the problem is spoiled, not solved. In this regard, feeling a sense of guilt over reading the editorial is a very positive sign that you care about the problem as a puzzle, as a brain-teaser, and not as a difficulty number.

Most of the times when I read the editorial, I know the necessary techniques. But knowing it is not enough; there are only so many techniques to learn. Thus, when you read the editorial, it's probably something you know, but never thought of using this way, and thus you feel guilty that you didn't think carefully enough and spoiled the problem...

In the end, it's not a bad thing, as long as you gave it your all!

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21 month(s) ago, # |
Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

I feel the same, it hurts my pride whenever I look at an editorial. What I do is I open a lot of problems over Codeforces, AtCoder, Codechef, and whenever I get stuck (which is quite a lot) I switch. Switching context really helps, and often times when I come back to the problem I have a fresh perspective at the least. Come back to it after a week or so.

In this way I never have to look at editorials and also you don't waste time on a single problem.