Hi Tille, You're not a bad programmer. Contests don't mean jack shit. My advice is to spend more time creating and less time competing. If you like competing, remember that it's just for fun.
So what to do now? Build something! Put your skills and your imagination towards creating something new. You can also get involved with open-source projects that you are interested in. Professional programming is about making careful considerations and planning for the future. You are an architect and a surgeon. Yes, there are deadlines, but there are methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban to help you create accurate estimates. Be aware though, there are always unforeseen issues and changes to requirements that you cannot possibly plan for. The challenge is to be precise when you can, and know immediately when you can't. Take a step back and get some perspective. You are what you walk between, and that for you is programming on thing or another. I have been programming since the commodore 24. I have failed, been good enough, and sometimes excellent. I very seldom think on my successes as a software engineer. I am more consumed by my failures and mistakes and the lessons that I need to draw from those experiences. If I see patterns beginning to resemble something that has tanked in the past, If I find myself making mistakes that I have already repeated, I know I have the experience to correct the situation. But your own failures are war wounds; they leave scars. What failures and mistakes do you see around you everyday? Every moment that you spend looking out from your eyes, is a moment to take control of your potential energy and and convert it to something kinetic. If you want to do better at contests. Start cataloguing your fears, you shortcomings. and your success. Take a solid look at your strengths and weaknesses, track them (create a spreadsheet maybe.) On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 3:04 PM, tillegomezz <tille...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have been an programmer my whole life, and it is my passion. I have done > many problems, I've helped a lot to other coders, and I've made contests > online constest in topcoder, codeforces a lot of times. On top of all of > this, I surround myself with other contesters as friends. Sadly, I recently > did some thinking and learned that I am a bad programming contester. A very > bad programming contester; I can't do a lot of DP problems, I can't > remember the algorithms during the contests, I can't solve a lot of of the > easy math problems, I can't think against the time very well, I can't solve > the problems which had similar ideas to the problems that I solved already. > I know what makes a good programming contester, and I've studied algorithm > problems and maths for years, but for some reason, I just can't code to > save my life, even though I love it with that life. > > My question to you all is this, even though I love to solve problems more > than anything else in the world, should I just give up on it? I am not > getting anything out of it, and there are no chances around me to learn > anything and improve, so should I forget it and find a new passion? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Algorithm Geeks" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to algogeeks+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Algorithm Geeks" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to algogeeks+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
