Stendhal's blog

People, who don't give up. People, who still fight.
By Stendhal, history, 3 years ago, In English

The master has failed more than the beginner has even tried

If you look at my previous blogs or comments, you will notice that I have a bad(wrong) attitude with pupils and newbies, but I really want to appreciate people, who fight a lot and they never give up, regardless of their rating change. It's true, this is competitive programming, but your main goal shouldn't be being better than someone, you must compete against yourself and don't look at other contestants as your rivals... There are plenty of programmers, who give up when they don't see progress in their rating, but here, in this blog, I want to mention some very determined users. you can also leave in comments somebody, who loves programming as a hobby and not as a sport:

ruban, PAG, eugalt, DatoTS, tantam75, farizazmip Ozymandias, chrome, Azat_Yusupov, Mediocrity, Olympia,

So, you may be stuck on a specific rating, but someday you will start flying. :)

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Comments Comments (60)
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3 years ago, # |
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This message touched my heart. Ty, i hope i can fly someday.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    instead of wasting 9 years on solving just CF problems, if they had spent half of their time on solving maths problems like the previous year maths olympiad ques, they would have reached LGM by now.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      Yup, this trick seems reliable coming from you. Gonna try it.

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3 years ago, # |
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1800 or bust by 2022 :)

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3 years ago, # |
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also me

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3 years ago, # |
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I mean, eugalt isn't trying to increase rating (I think), he's one of the few people who love to get the shortest solution to something, go to almost any of the A's, B's, or C's of the past few contests and you'll see his name at the top, which I admire.

Also, thank you, because this is exactly how I feel!

I'd also like to mention Olympia who's been struggling with passing Specialist for some time.

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3 years ago, # |
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What about chandanagrawal23?

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3 years ago, # |
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Profile of ruban is mindblowing.

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3 years ago, # |
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I don't think being stuck in a rating is a very worthy accomplishment...

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3 years ago, # |
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add oursaco he worked really hard and every day to do multiple problems. he inspires me everyday and I hope he inspires everyone else to work hard to achieve their goals

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3 years ago, # |
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I wish to be candidate master one day and I am working hard for it.

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3 years ago, # |
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I highly respect ruban orz. Superhuman level consistency !!

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3 years ago, # |
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How can you forget PAG ? He deserves to be at the first place.

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3 years ago, # |
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Since you kind of mentioned me :D I guess it might be interesting for some to read that.

You have to understand the reasoning behind you doing something, in this case solving problems.

If its about solving interesting problems and improving your knowledge on that, then you probably don't have issues with motivation, because interest is your motivation.

If you like to compete(like I do), then it's a different thing. Sometimes, at least for me, it's really hard to keep going considering your results (decent results is an individual thing, so performing good for one might be performing badly for other, no offense guys). In such situations I don't think about how did that guy won me or why did I loose after spending so much time on this. Instead, I'm thinking about what is my actual maximum, what could I do with the knowledge I have, basically would this guy beat me if he was at my place, living where I did, training like I did, when we are actually even. What I'm trying to say is that if this guy had beaten me, then probably he trained more or better than me, therefore he deserved his result, and I deserved mine. At this point, I'm just trying to do everything I can, and at the end of the day, looking at your past results, you can see that this is exactly what happened, you did your best, he did his best, that's what competition is about, giving all your best.

On the other hand, if you are still unsatisfied with your result, then probably you either spent not enough time training or you do it in a bad way. You either quit, or get better by spending your TV/gaming/working/studying/sleeping time on improving yourself in this exact way. No other choice, since you have only 24h in a day and you can't borrow it from nowhere.

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3 years ago, # |
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I'm not entirely sure what's so admirable about lack of progress...

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    If you have infinite tries, you only lose when you stop playing

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    In the face of adversity you are not giving in.

    I do not know how far your rating would progress but you should know this that the ability to stick all the way to the end even in the face of adversity is a valuable skill which will help you in other areas in life definitely.

    :p I am also kinda plateauing for a while now. (So I motivate myself in this way besides the regular practice)

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3 years ago, # |
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After seeing their graph, I am kind of feeling depressed. How can someone solving that many problems and still be stuck in?

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    You have to focus more on quality of the problems that you solve, rather than the quantity. If you are always feeling comfortable solving problems, then you are not gonna improve. So you must get out of your comfort zone, otherwise solving even 1000 problems will be of no use.

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3 years ago, # |
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Mentioning myself... vp7070573

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3 years ago, # |
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I think I would call myself determined too, I won't give up easily

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3 years ago, # |
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I would like to add spookywooky in this list. I like competing against him :)

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    It gives me great pleasure to defeat you every time ;)

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      XD, See you soon in 705, though I know you will beat me easily but I won't mind trying :)

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3 years ago, # |
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I will advice them , that they should stop wasting time and do something else . This much effort for CP , do not worth it . I passed that phase , that is why i am advising you . You will regret .

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    Regret in what sense?

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    Does everyone play basketball to become Lebron?

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      no one wants to become tourist here... but whoever practising CP seriously here wants to get into the top 10 ranks within 10 years at least

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
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        Not really

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
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        My goal is probably division 1 or at least rating 1900. And maybe when / if I eventually reach it maybe I'll have another goal. Also, training for ACM.

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3 years ago, # |
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Joshi503 Maybe the number of contests and problem solved is not extraordinarily high, but he/she came back to almost pupil from very a pretty low rating, and I think a lot of the people at that rating would have given up.

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3 years ago, # |
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Great coders! It is really hard to insist on programming for so many years, no matter what your color is. I think I should work harder than before from now on.

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3 years ago, # |
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No offense nor Fun...

But I just Want to Salute PAG

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3 years ago, # |
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can someone tell me the right way to practice CP so that ratings should increase?

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3 years ago, # |
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A lot of users don't care about rating, or at least don't care about it enough to put effort into improving it.

Blindly assuming that every person on your list is "very determined" is like saying that everyone who is playing online games for years must be "very determined". Everyone has their own story: some folks care but don't have enough time to practice properly, some folks care but don't really understand that they should practice at all, some folks don't care and simply enjoy participating in contests.

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3 years ago, # |
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Doesn't it make more sense to mention users who have plateaued for a while but eventually increased their rating?

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3 years ago, # |
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Yup there was time when I sat straight for 2 hours but still couldn't solve a single question in contest. I ain't a LGM but a noob converted to pupil who tries hard each day to grow a little better than yesterday.

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3 years ago, # |
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I think, we forgot one guy :) rainboy

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    I would hesitate to say that a middle-school USACO Finalist doesn't have progress...

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13 months ago, # |
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Never giving up is for noobs, you should NeverCompromise

-Our lord and saviour, Walter Kovacs(aka Rorschach)

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