Why the Streak Needed to End!
Geeks, Tech-Freaks, Prodigies and whatnot-these are some of the common things that most people make connections to, as soon as they hear Computer Science and a Computer Science Undergrad.
Most of the time, these things aren’t completely true (but yes, I have seen people who are literal prodigies and know a ton more than any average classmate).
But this blog isn’t about Computer Science, but rather, about the things attached to that-specifically, DSA (and CP).
WHAT IS DSA and CP?
To those unknown, DSA stands for Data Structures and Algorithms. To give a concise and crisp idea, data structures are an efficient way of storing things- be it in the primary memory of your computer, i.e., the RAM, some web server, or whatever thing you can think of stores data. At the same time, algorithms can be understood as an EFFICEINTLY DESIGNED PROCESS of storing the things (and even retrieving).
So, DSA has a high use in the backend of a System, where the data is collected, it is to be organized stored, and how retrieved it back for further usage in an efficient manner; CP(Competitive Programming), on the other hand, refers to, Solving Logic based problems using those Data Structures.
So yes, this was DSA and CP for the unknowns.
To many this seems kind of boring and all, I have a good interest in DSA and CP, solving logic and pattern-based based problems via coding.
The image you are seeing above, the green colored tile, is a depiction of the same. The picture above shows the consistency of my solving DSA-based questions on a website called Leet-Code.
As you can see, I solved for a continuous 101 days in 1 problem per day for DSA, but why did I end the streak?
PROCESS > > > > PRODUCT
Not denying the fact that “Consistency is the Key” and that, in some of my previous blogs, I have mentioned the importance of Consistency, but one must see that Consistency doesn’t come at the cost of Efficiency!
I will never deny that CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY, but, when it comes at the cost of EFFICIENCY, you should know it is not keeping you on the right track.
There is no point in rowing the boat when you are row it away from finish line.
I felt the same happening to me because of this streak maintenance. And here is what I learned and felt-
The streak-based solving is good for those people who are just starting with DSA and are in a position where they wish to learn, but can’t find an internal motivation to solve problems, thus, attaching the streak based reward to it makes it doable for them
(and yes, there would be people who would say that they do not belong to this category, still solve for the streak and their genuine responses along with that) and sure enough there can be other reason as well, but one thing is for sure-
“ THE STREAK GAME IS NOT FOR ME! “
For me, solving DSA and doing CP is more of something that I LOVE TO DO, over WHAT I NEED TO DO. So, when I tried this 100-day streak, I found two main things that worked opposite for me than I had expected.
1) NOT GROWING:-
This was one of the key things that made me feel the same for maintaining the streak. While I was solving the Questions, I was not learning anything-I wasn’t finding efficient ways to solve the problem, and the main reason being, that I was not solving the problems, but rather, I was SOLVING FOR MAINTAINING THE STREAK.
This was making me get away from the process of learning to solve, thinking out of the box, trying and experimenting/tinkering to solve it in a more optimized way-because this is the end goal of DSA and CP-not just solving, but solving it in an optimized manner (because it was not just the Leetcode questions, but I even had to do go to college, do the assignments-a bit of college work, and then, learn something apart; but this learning was also hampered coz of the tight schedule).
2) TOXIC ENVIRONMENT:-
All this daily Leetcode was developing a toxic association of DSA in my mind. I was viewing this as a rather forced thing-purely for maintaining the streak.
I noticed that I was barely making it to solve-like, somedays, exams, or academic preparation took a larger chunk of the day, and even though exhausted, I would FORCEFULLY HAVE to SOLVE THIS FOR STREAK-and the issue was not pushing myself, but rather, pushing for Streak, and not learning.
Now, many would bring out the silver lining by saying-
“ So this indirectly, makes you do what you don’t feel like doing, but what you SHOULD do-which is good, isn’t it? ”
but I feel, this is not the GOAL for me. I do not want to get 2000 problems solved on Leetcode for the sake of solving them rather, I would be well happy if I solved 750 to 900 problems, but for every problem that I solved, I analyzed it well, tried twice or thrice with different approaches than solve for the numbers and stats.
THE CRUX
I am nobody to tell or command any of the readers what they should do. As I have said, you should be the captain of your Ship, the sole person to berate or belaud for the actions and their subsequent consequences.
Everyone has his/her way of handling and doing things. While some of you would have their way of solving daily, forcing yourself to do it and that’s completely fine; while there are some people like me(I hope I am not the alone one here), who solves to learn, and the stats and streaks are something that doesn’t bother much (and is more of a secondary thing).
It’s the chase of solving, learning and growing which I like to chase over the Streak Maintaining and the Badges.
I will try to solve the DCC, but this time, it won’t be solving for the streak, but rather, to learn, and if I am unable to solve the same day, well, no worries, I will at least learn, study that topic, and then, hopefully, solve it later sometime :)
So yes, with this, the Blog has come to an end, will catch you all back with the Next Blog-till then, Keep Learning, and Keep Growing😄
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