Um_nik's blog

Unimportant Um_nik Update
By Um_nik, history, 14 months ago, In English

Hello Codeforces! I have some big news.

I am trying to fight depression and live a fuller life. That includes some self-realization, maybe even (I don't even want to think about it) a job. I love cp, and I love teaching, and I know I already tried that, but I believe that this is the way.

With the help of my wife, I started to work on some related projects, and today we want to share them with the world. All of them are in the early stages, but we set a hard deadline for March 1, so...

Um

Um... I am starting a series of educational YouTube videos / selected problems.

Every episode of Um is focused on one problem. I will explain how to solve this problem and talk about some related concepts. The idea is to show off some cool concepts using real problems.

The kicker: the problem is made public at least a week before the episode airs. So you can use Um as a source of problems. I will try to choose nice problems that highlight some ideas, and problems that I consider beautiful.

I am planning to do an episode every day. I might have to scale down later, but right now I'm excited. These videos will be much more scripted compared to my screencasts.

Episode 0

List of problems/episodes First week of problems is already there, the first episode will air on March 8. Note that you are able to filter the problems.

My YouTube channel

You can also join discussion channels for Um in Discord.

Um_nik World

Unfortunately, it is not an amusement park.

I created a Notion space for anything related to me. The most notable page is the Um_nik manual — my attempt to explain my notorious personality and help you communicate with me without pain.

I also created a Discord server. A place for conversations where I can ban you — what's not to like?

Um_nik Training Center 2.0

I have succumbed to requests for one-on-one lessons and I am officially starting tutoring.

This is hard for me to do. The only way to do this for me is to be completely honest. I don't see why you would want to have lessons in competitive programming. But if you do want them, you want them with me.

I don't want to break CF rules more than I already did, so... If you are interested, read the tutoring section in Um_nik World. If you are a bit interested, join the Discord server and maybe follow the Um series. If you like my videos, you will probably like my tutoring.

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Comments Comments (37)
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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

Can you please add rating ranges for discussed problems? The very easy -> very hard levels are OK, but it would be nice to at least associate a problem with some Codeforces rating, e.g. a medium problem is around 2200 or something like it. I guess this is easy to add in Notion.

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +38 Vote: I do not like it

    There are Kenkoooo ratings for AtCoder problems. I don't have the slightest idea how to calculate CF ratings other than "how I feel", and "how I feel" is better described with easy -> hard levels.

    UPD: Oh, I just forgot to copy this property. Sorry, fixed! I had it in the internal database, and my first idea was to make a public view, but it was possible to see problems that I had not published yet, so I had to create a second (public) database by hand.

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

I read through the um_nik manual and realised that I am um_nik but with 0.01% strength xD.

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

I am curious how your tutoring offerings will change over time, if at all. I have vaguely thought about offering similar one-on-one tutoring (primarily US-centric and online, but possibly in person for people in the San Francisco Bay Area) but have not tried to formalize this because, just as you describe, the market for such services is small and demand is very unclear (I do agree that if people are truly serious about getting better at programming contests, they should want to have lessons with you.)

How much time do you want to devote to tutoring per week/month?

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

    Fwiw, I think demand for tutoring is actually relatively high in the US (maybe less so if you exclude students who you don't consider serious about improving...), but the matching process between students and tutors seems highly inefficient, leading to wide variance in prices among qualified tutors. I've been tutoring a handful of private students for the past year or so without having done any advertising--I just occasionally receive messages from people interested in coaching, of whom a subset found that I was the right fit and were willing to pay my rate. I've thought for some time about making an active effort to find more clients, since it seems like there's clearly interest, but it seems challenging since I think most advertising for the sort of tutoring I do would need to target parents rather than students.

    For context, all of the clients I currently work with are training for the USACO--as far as I'm aware, at least in the US there's much more of a market for USACO training than for e.g. training for ICPC or CF. (I think it helps to have qualifications specifically related to USACO--in my case some of my students chose me after seeing my name on various USACO leaderboards; I'm sure in your case your experience writing USACO problems would make it easier to find students.)

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

    Well... I was thinking like 30 hours a week. But I don't know if I will be able to.

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

Do you work for any company?

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

    No

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      14 months ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      When did you leave CodeChef? We know that you joined that company. But don't know that you left.

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        14 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        June 2022

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

          Personally, I really miss all those delicate problems from Lunchtimes and Cook-offs. Thank you!

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

            Thanks for the kind words.

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14 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -17 Vote: I do not like it

I love umnik's sense of humour 🤣

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -17 Vote: I do not like it

    I don't get how an honest compliment about someone is getting downvotes. I wasn't joking, I meant it. If you disagree, that's no reason to downvote. Just ignore and keep scrolling. Please don't make this forum like reddit/twitter :prayge:

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

      Well, I downvoted because of that annoying emoji you used at the end of your sentence.

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +46 Vote: I do not like it

As a dog lover. I just randomly find out that there's a page for your dog. It looks so cute. Wish it would be updated progressively.

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14 months ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

For those who are wondering, um means mind, mentality in russian (pronounced differently though)

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

You banned me ???

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

Screenshot-2023-03-03-222251

But I'm very blue!

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

    You are not far away from becoming green :)

    (just a joke)

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

      If that's what it takes to be a part of the umnik_team ;)

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

offtopic

Every time I watch "My hero academia" and I see Endeavor on screen, Um_nik comes to my mind. I am not so sure about personality, but the vibe is definitely the same.

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14 months ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it -84 Vote: I do not like it

codeforces people donot have brain that's why downvote my commment blindly rubbish do do more do downvote my comment make it most downvote comment on whole codeforces rubbish people

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    14 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +52 Vote: I do not like it

    I just don't understand what is written here

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

      Let me translate from retarded to english for you. The unbelievably high-iq testmayank123 is trying to say the following:

      You are a talented person, and a lot of companies which pay very handsomely (For example high-frequency trading firms) will surely hire you. So why don't you take up teaching as a side-gig and start working at some high-paying company.

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14 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +72 Vote: I do not like it

Its not Unimportant rather Umimportant

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13 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -13 Vote: I do not like it

Hey man I idolise you and it really hurts me to see you fighting through depression. Hope the Best for you; Btw what will be the required pre requisites for the problems, is the whole cp will be pre requisited like every topics plus will you be teaching those topics sometimes;

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